


Keep on Fighting

by Firewhisperer13



Series: How to Train Your Dragon Series [4]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, F/M, Series, how to train your dragon 2 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22774357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: 5 years following the peace made between dragons and humans on Berk, the waters have begun to stir yet again. While out exploring, Hiccup and Reign meet an ambitious group of Dragon Hunters serving under Drago Bludvist. That one name leads them to a completely other world, and what once was thought to be lost was found again.All Rights Reserved, Dreamworks Animation Studios, 2014
Relationships: Astrid Hofferson/Original Female Character(s), Fishlegs Ingerman/Original Female Character(s), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Original Female Character(s), Ruffnut Thorston/Original Character(s), Snotlout Jorgenson/Original Female Character(s), Tuffnut Thorston/Original Female Character(s)
Series: How to Train Your Dragon Series [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636735
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

_This is Berk. The best kept secret this side of, well, anywhere. Granted, it may not look like much, but this wet heap of rock holds more than a few surprises. Life here is amazing, just not for the faint of heart. See, where most folks enjoy hobbies like whittling or needlepoint, we Berkians prefer a little something we like to call… Dragon Racing!_

The dizzying sensation of the wind stinging my face and threatening to break open my skin was the most exhilarating feeling in the world. Zipping around tight corners nearly threw me off of my Thunderdrum, but I didn’t care. It was all in pursuit of the most points, to take home the glory once again. Astrid and I were tied for number of wins, and with my last Dragon Race for quite a while coming to a close, I was determined to jump ahead. My competitive spirit had grown over the years, and though I wasn’t really one for competition when I was younger, once we’d come up with Dragon Racing, I’d changed.

I crouched down further onto Shriek, my feet firmly planted on her back, as Fishlegs and Snotlout whizzed by me, and the latter snatched a sheep from the claws of the former’s dragon.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Fishlegs! Did you want that?” Snotlout taunted.

“Snotlout! That’s mine!”

I watched as Snotlout passed the sheep off to Ruffnut, attempting to work in time with her twin to steer their Zippleback.

“Here ya go, babe.” Ruff caught the sheep, grumbling and sneering at Snotlout. “Did I tell you that you look amazing today? ‘Cuz you do.”

I shook my head. For some reason, Fishlegs and Snotlout had just decided that they were going to compete for Ruffnut’s affections. I think it had started at my brother’s wedding, but what _exactly_ had inspired them was beyond me.

“Come on, Barf. It’s starting to stink around here.” Ruffnut steered Barf to peel off, gas spilling from his mouth. That allowed Tuffnut to pull up aside from Snotlout, shooting him a mocking grin.

“Nope,” he laughed. “Still hates you. Let’s blow this place, Belch!”

Tuffnut had Belch spark the gas, causing an explosion that could temporarily blind Snotlout. Thinking quickly, I pulled Shriek up and went above the cloud of smoke, in pursuit of that sheep. I needed every advantage I could get if I wanted to win this, especially considering that Astrid was a formidable racer as well. And with Fishlegs and Snotlout on the twins’ side, the odds weren’t in my favor.

I let out a sigh as Ruffnut dropped the sheep into her and her brother’s basket, nearly filling it to the point of the ropes nearly breaking. But I didn’t have time to mope, I had to get right back into it. I still had a chance, there were still more sheep, not to mention the big showstopper that would seriously pull me ahead to a win if I could catch it.

I pushed Shriek forward to make her go faster, then signaled her to send out a boom that caused Snotlout to jump, catching his attention.

“What are you doing, Snotlout?” I shouted as Astrid pulled up beside me. “They’re going to win now!”

“She’s my princess,” he protested. “Whatever she wants, she gets.”

“Ruffnut?” Astrid interjected. ‘Didn’t she try to bury you alive?”

“Only for a few hours!”

With another roll of my eyes, I peeled away from the others, in an attempt to take a route that would build up more speed. With another sheep still pending, I had time to regroup and prepare to go in for the kill.

_Dragons used to be a bit of a problem around here, but that was five years ago. Now they’ve all moved in. And, really, why wouldn’t they?_

I managed to pull ahead of everyone else as we maneuvered our way through the dragon stables, which had been moved underground to a vast cave system in order to keep them and the people above safe. The sunlight as we emerged blinded me for a moment and caused me to sneeze a couple of times, throwing me off for a few seconds, but not costing me my place.

_We have custom stables, all-you-can-eat feeding stations, a full service dragon wash…_

I peeled myself away from the group as a little, baby Gronkle sneezed and set the roof of one of the houses on fire. Violently, I yanked open a spout that allowed water to fall and douse the flames so that I didn’t have to waste time and cost myself the win.

_Even top-of-the-line fire prevention, if I do say so myself._

I caught up to the others as a horn sounded, indicating that this was the end all, be all lap (for me, at least it was. For the others, it was just one of many to come). We all looked at each other in excitement, watching the sky and the ground carefully for what we were waiting for.

“The Black Sheep! Come on, Stormfly! We can still win this thing!”

“Oh, please. Shriek and I are about to put you to shame!” I teased, causing Astrid and I to laugh.

“Come on, Barf!”

“Let’s go!”

“Go, Meatlug!” I smiled as the others charged ahead.

“Well, at least this isn’t going to be an easy fight.”

I looked up just as a black blob flew through the air, pushing the adrenaline through my veins again and causing me to practically start shaking from excitement.

“Up, up, up!” Shriek started to climb, but before we could reach the Black Sheep, Fishlegs and Meatlug flew past in a blur and grabbed it. “No!”

“Good job, Meatlug!” He threw the sheep up to Ruffnut, knowing that getting her this would give him some sort of advantage over Snotlout. “Here you go darling. _Mine’s_ worth ten.”

“Yeah! The Black Sheep!”

“You guys are fighting for Ruffnut?” Astrid was clearly as frustrated about this as I was. It was essentially four against one against one, and that wasn’t fair.

“I’m totally winning!” Fishlegs hovered up beside Ruffnut.

“We’re winning together!”

Ruffnut rammed Barf into Meatlug, causing her and Fishlegs to launch into a series of spins that Fishlegs couldn’t control. That caused him to slam straight into Snotlout and Hookfang. I could hear the cheers below me, pushing me on to steal that sheep from Ruffnut.

“No one can stop me now!”

“Except for me. We’re attached, genius!”

Tuffnut reached out and grabbed one end of the sheep, causing the twins to launch into a tug-of-war. Normally, the twins antics would cause all of us to sigh in frustration and move on, but in this case, it played to my advantage. They were distracted, and now was my moment to get in there and steal that sheep from them.

“It’s my glory! No sheep, no glory!”

“You’re always ruining _everything_!”

This was it. I managed to get close enough that I could reach out and touch Barf and Belch, then steadied myself on Shriek before jumping off and, thankfully, rolling onto the back of their dragon. In a split second, I raced forward and snatched the sheep from their hands, then jumped back down onto Shriek and flew away.

“Gotcha!”

“Reign!”

“ _That’s_ my daughter-in-law!” I heard Stoick shout as I flew down over the main arena. I’d have to get closer in order to drop the sheep, but as I looked around, the others were closing in on me, so trying to lower myself would be a risk. But the finish _was_ close enough, that maybe if I circled another time, I’d be able to get down there.

Suddenly, Fishlegs and Meatlug rammed into Shriek and I, jarring me and sending us off course. Thankfully, I managed to keep my hold on the Black Sheep, but the spiral sent me right toward Snotlout, who was holding up a hammer and smirking at me.

“Uh, excuse me.”

“Shriek!”

The two of us managed to duck out of the way as he threw the hammer, causing it to hit Fishlegs instead. I winced slightly at his cry of pain, but shook it off, knowing that he would be perfectly fine. This was my moment, and I couldn’t give it up, so while everyone else was still reeling from Fishlegs getting hurt, I pushed Shriek to do a circle over the water to lose everyone, before looping back around and through the finish, dropping the sheep down into my basket and causing the crowd to go absolutely wild.

“That’s fifteen! Reign takes the game!” I smiled and swooped over the crowd a couple of times before landing in the arena with the others. As soon as I hopped off, Astrid strode over to me and gave me a side-hug.

“That was awesome, Reign!” she complimented. “You totally owned that!”

“Thanks, Astrid,” I laughed, returning the affectionate gesture. “That was a great way to finish things off.” She leaned closer, and a more serious expression crossed her face.

“Have you told him yet?” I sighed and pulled the white, fur cloak I wore to adjust it from being tossed around from the wind.

“I was going to this morning, but he was gone by the time I woke up. Went off on Toothless again to explore, I think.” I waved my hand causally and turned away from her, wanting to change the subject before I got flustered. My eyes rested on Snotlout and Fishlegs, who were once again at each other’s throats about Ruffnut.

“I’m the one who gave her the black sheep,” Fishlegs protested. “Just admit that I’m better!”

“Ha! You wish, Fish-face.” I stepped forward and between their argument, breaking it up before they started getting physical.

“Seriously, why Ruffnut?” I grunted.

“Well, _you_ went off the market when you got married,” Snotlout accused. I raised an eyebrow and turned to stare him down, causing him to shrink back. “N-not that that’s a bad thing.” I sighed and turned back around to get up on Shriek.

“Heading off?” I nodded.

“Gonna try and find our AWOL racer. I’ll see you guys later."

_Yep. Berk is pretty much perfect. All of our hard work has paid off. And it’s a good thing, too, because with Vikings on the backs of dragons, the world just got a whole lot bigger._


	2. Chapter 2

I pulled tighter on my gloves as the air turned colder. This was the one thing I hated about living around here: it was always cold, and I didn’t do well in the cold. The water that was kicked up on my face nearly turned it to ice, the wind no longer pleasant on my exposed skin. Shriek was nearly on autopilot, following the trail of scents she was using to track who we were after. The path was convoluted and twisting, but at high speeds with the proper protection from the wind, I’m sure it must have been thrilling. A group of Timberjacks flew over my head as we evened out over the water, curious as to what was flying alongside their group.

The thing that was helping the most in keeping me warm was that white, fur cloak that I always wore after I had gotten it, even when it was warmer out. It had belonged to my father, and I’d found it at his final resting place, waiting for me to take it. It had been in our family for a long time, and symbolized out status, along with the metal belt that was starting to freeze around my hips. They were things I held dear to me, my connections to family members both deceased and on a far away island.

Suddenly, Shriek started flying up, and hovered beside a rock spire that had clearly been knocked down by force.

“There aren’t gonna be any rocks left, at this rate.” I shook my head, but I couldn’t fight my smile, which grew as she turned and showed me two figures, both leaned over the same thing on a small island.

Shriek let out a roar as she landed on the grassy rock, bringing attention to us. The affectionate smile was mirrored on Hiccup’s face as he looked back at us.

“‘Afternoon, m’lady,” he greeted as I got off my dragon, causing me to blush. Even after five years, that nickname still made my stomach erupt into butterflies. “Where have you been?”

Toothless rushed up to me and bounced playful, bringing a giggle up from my gut as I scratched underneath his chin.

“Winning races. What else?” I heard him let out a huff of air; a small, subtle laugh that he thought I couldn’t hear. “The real question is, where have _you_ been?”

“Avoiding my dad.” My playful demeanor backed off a little bit, knowing that when Hiccup had issues with Stoick, it was usually something serious.

“Oh, no. What happened now?” I sat down beside him and took the pencil from his hands, looking over the sketch he had done of the trees in front of us before continuing it on my own.

“Oh, you’re gonna love this. I wake up. The sun is shining. Terrible Terrors are singing on the rooftops. I somehow manage to slip out without waking _you_ up.” He poked my stomach on the word ‘you,’ causing me to giggle. “I saunter to my old house to ask my dad about something, thinking all is right with the world, and I get…” He got up to his feet and suddenly puffed out his chest. “‘...Son, we need to talk.’”

A mischievous smirk crossed my face, and I slouched down, just like Hiccup does.

“Not now, Dad. I’ve got a whole day of goofing off to get started,” I mocked, tossing and jarring my shoulders in an odd way. It caused Hiccup to break character, and although he had a grimace on his face, I could see the smile he was trying so hard to keep down.

“Okay, first of all, I don’t sound like that. What is this character?” I laughed and shook my head. “And second… what is that thing you’re doing with my shoulders?” I did the movement again, this time more dramatic than the last. “A truly flattering impersonation,” he deadpanned. “Anyway, he goes… ‘You’re the pride of Berk, son, and I couldn’t be prouder…”

“Aw, thanks, Dad. I’m pretty impressed with myself too.” I gesticulated wildly this time, causing Hiccup to fully break and laugh.

“When have I ever done that with my hands?” In a beautiful moment of irony, he did just what I had done with his hands.

“You just did,” I laughed.

“Okay… just…” He crouched down to meet my eyes and held my arms in my lap, making a mock-stern face as he looked at me. “Hold still. It’s very serious.” As he stood, the sunlight caught the gold on his ring and reflected it onto my face, causing me to smile. “‘You’re all grown up, and since no chief could ask for a better successor, I’ve decided-” I caught on to what he was about to say, and shot up in excitement.

“-to make you chief! Oh, my gods! Hiccup, that’s amazing!”

I reached out and socked him in the chest, causing him to recoil as I struck the button that popped open the dorsal fin on his flight suit. He stuttered as he tried to reel it back in, causing me to laugh.

“You’re gonna wear out the spring coil,” he rambled. “The calibration is very sensitive!”

“I know, I know. I was there when you made it.” He finished reeling in the fin and sighed, shaking his head before looking back up at me. Just as our eyes met, a sudden strong force bowled us both over, presumably our dragons. I could help but let out a little laugh as the two of us tumbled to the ground, and thankfully, Hiccup broke my fall.

As soon as we were down, I pressed myself back up and extended a hand down. He took it firmly and I hoisted him up, and as soon as he dusted himself off, he reached out and started looked around for little cuts or bruises. I couldn’t help but scoff at his actions.

“I’m fine, you dope.” He sighed and ghosted his fingers over my cheek before turning back to the previous conversation topic.

“Yeah, so… this is what I’m dealing with.” I reached around his side and dusted off some dirt on his elbow that had gone unnoticed before smiling at him sympathetically.

“What did you tell him?”

“I didn’t. By the time he turned around, I was gone.”

I shook my head and picked up the map. It was a difficult thing, to decide whether you really wanted to be the chief or not. I’d given up my chance to live on Berk with my friends and the love of my life, but that was because I’d barely known the Berserkers. With Hiccup, Berk was the place he had spent his whole life, and he had to know that, at some point, this would happen. Maybe it was better for this to come earlier, so that when he was older, he wouldn’t just be transitioning when his dad became too old. I tried my best to rattle off the thoughts I was having without discouraging him.

“Well, it’s a lot of responsibility,” I started. “The map will have to wait for sure, and you’ll have to teach me how to fly Toothless, since you’ll be too busy…” The words I was saying caught up with my brain, and I turned around with a sad look in my eyes. Gently, I reached out and took his hand in mine and he grabbed the notebook with the map in it with the other.

“It’s not me, Reign. All those speeches, and planning, and running the village… that’s _his_ thing.”

“I think you’re missing the point. I mean, _chief_. What an honor. I was pretty excited, until I realized what becoming chief would make me leave behind.” I leaned against his arm for a second before pulling away as he shook his head.

“I’m not like you. You know exactly who you are. You always have. But…” I shook my head in confusion as Hiccup made his way over to the edge of the cliff and looked out.

“I have not always known who I am. Need I remind you that I had to look everywhere just to find out a sliver of information about my family?”

He didn’t respond, so I made my way over to him and wrapped an arm around his waist before looking out at the endless sea of orange and yellow.

“I’m still looking. I know that I’m not my father… and I never met my mother… so, what does that make me?” He started to sit down, pulling me along with him. I sighed and felt my heart drop as I looked at his pensive and scared expression, his eyes holding something of a restless burden. I started to run one of my hands through his hair as the other held his hand that was closest to mine.

“What you’re searching for… isn’t out there.” My hand moved from his fingers to rest on his chest. “It’s in here. Maybe you just don’t see it yet.”

I affectionately kissed his cheek, but unbeknownst to me, he was covered in dried Night Fury saliva. A bitter taste overtook my tongue as the substance turned sticky in my mouth, causing my to gag and spit into the grass until it was gone. Hiccup shifted in my arms, and I let up as I removed my glove and wiped my lips, trying to get it all off.

“Maybe. But, y’know, there _is_ something out there…” I sighed and put my glove back on, just wanting to give this up and go home.

“Hiccup…”

He suddenly grabbed my chin and turned my head forward to see what he was seeing. There was… smoke out there, coming up in plumes from beyond the trees. I squinted as I got a closer look.

“Come on.”

We jumped onto our dragons and flew toward the source.


	3. Chapter 3

I shuddered as the cold around us intensified. The sea of changing leaves had made a sudden shift into burnt timbers and remains of trees, the smell of smoke still present to sting our nostrils. Despite my gut twisting and turning, the two of us pushed on after reassuring glances at each other. My eyes widened and we turned out of the ash and smoke to find large, spires of ice sticking out from what appeared to have once been a harbor, based on the blasted bits of ships stuck in the ice.

“Stay close,” Hiccup cautioned. The place was haunting, the remains of the lives of people who had once been here. It was somehow even more chilling than the air around us. “What happened here?” Toothless growled lowly at a large dragon footprint, imprinted into the muddy shoreline. “Easy, bud.”

As we flew over the tops of the ice formation, I noticed the small dots of a group of men below us, armed with sturdy cannons that could launch nets at us. My eyes widened as I snapped my head around.

“Hiccup!” Before either of us could react, they fired a net in my direction.

“Reign! Look out!”

The net tangled around Shriek and her wings, causing her to spiral down and knocking me off. I closed my eyes as I started to plummet and tried my best to turn myself into a screwdriver shape, so that if I hit the water, I wouldn’t get ripped in half.

“Hiccup!”

I sighed in relief as I bounced against the hard scales of a Night Fury. I reached out and grabbed one of Hiccup’s shoulders so that I wouldn’t fall of, as we were speeding quickly toward the ground to save my Thunderdrum. As soon as we landed, I yanked the Gronkle Iron shield off of my back and held my sword in my other hand.

“Stop!”

“Shriek!” I looked around at the men who had captured my dragon. “What are you doing?”

Hiccup pulled out his blade and ignited it with the Monstrous Nightmare saliva, causing the eyes of the men around us to go wide as they stared at the two of us.

“Back again?” A man with tied back, black hair of large stature stepped forward, moving his gaze behind us to get a better look at Toothless. His interest was piqued, a smug and chilling smile crossing his face. “Well, soil my britches… that _is_ a Night Fury. I thought they were all gone for good.” He turned around to address his men. “Looks like our luck’s had a turn for the better, lads! Don’t think Drago has one of those in his dragon army.”

The men muttered agreements, while Hiccup and I were forced to look at each other in confusion. Drago? Dragon army? None of this made any sense, but at the same time, none of it sounded good, either.

“Dragon army?”

“Look, we don’t want any trouble.” Hiccup was trying his best to diffuse the situation.

“Ha! You should’ve thought of that before you stole all of our dragons and blasted our fort to bits!” I looked at Hiccup, once again confused.

“Wait…”

“What are you talking about?”

The two of us had been staying on Berk the past couple of days while I recovered from being sick. Neither of us would have had the chance to sneak away and do something like this, nor did we have the resources to create giant ice spires.

“You think we did this?”

“Dragon trapping is hard enough as it is, without do-gooder dragon riders sneaking in to rescue them,” he scoffed, starting to go off on a rant.

“What do-gooder-” Hiccup stopped as he realized what the man had just said. “There are other dragon riders?”

“You mean, other than your thieving friend from last night? You tell me.” The man tried to step closer, but Toothless crouched down more and growled. “You may have an ice-spitting dragon on your side, but we still have a quota to fill. How do you suppose we explain this mess to Drago Bludvist?”

“Drago _what-fist?_ Does anything you say make sense?” I shot a glare of Hiccup as he chuckled. This wasn’t the time for making jokes, especially when these people appeared to be unstable.

“He’s expecting a new shipment of dragons for his army by tomorrow.”

“And Drago don’t take well to excuses,” one of the men chimed in.

My eyes went wide as the man pulled down his shirt just past his collarbone, revealing a brand burned into his chest, the skin raised in odd patterns to show off just how much damage had been done.

“ _This_ is what he gave me last time I showed up empty-handed. He promised to be far less understanding in the future.”

“Look, we don’t know anything about a dragon thief, or an ice-spitting dragon, or your lunatic boss and his dragon army, okay?” I was starting to get frustrated, officially having had enough of this rambling. “Just give us back _our_ dragon, and we’ll go, strange, hostile person whom we’ve _never_ met.” I emphasized the word ‘never’ to assure that we knew nothing about any of this. The man bowed, almost mocking me.

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Eret. Son of Eret. Finest dragon trapper alive.” The look in his eyes once again turned malicious. “After all, it’s not just anyone who can capture a Night Fury.”

I tightened the grip on my sword as Toothless gave a warning roar. The men started to aim their weapons in our direction, clearly ready to fire on Eret’s signal.

“And this is Toothless. He says we’re going. Now.” Eret chuckled darkly.

“They all say that. Rush ‘em, lads!”

Just as Eret lunged at us, Toothless fired a blast at one of the ice spires to knock it down. It shattered as it hit the ground, causing Eret and his men to duck out of the way. Hiccup took the chance to ignite his blade again and help me cut through the ropes that were keeping Shriek tied down.

“Shriek! Come on, go! Go!”

I jumped up onto my Thunderdrum as Hiccup mounted Toothless, and before anyone could get up, we flew away.

“You will never hold onto those dragons, you hear me! Drago is coming for them all!”

As soon as we were far enough away, I allowed myself to decompress, and nearly collapsed onto Shriek. I was starting to feel woozy again, but I couldn’t tell if it was from the loss of adrenaline, or from my recent sickness, but I really wasn’t feeling well.

“Hey, Reign?” I managed to look over at Hiccup. “You okay?”

I didn’t respond, just stared ahead. I couldn’t tell him now, it wasn’t the right time or place. Besides, now it sounded like we had much bigger things on our hands to worry about.

“I just feel weird,” I admitted hoarsely, trying to be vague.

“I thought you were better. You did the Dragon Race today and everything.” He steered Toothless closer and reached out to place a hand on my back. “Are you sure it’s not something serious?”

“No, I’m probably just feeling everything I’ve done today, now.”

I felt a strong arm hoist me up, and I was set down on Toothless behind Hiccup. Carefully, so that I wouldn’t get dizzy again, I leaned forward and rested my head between his shoulder blades as he removed the glove from my hand with the ring on it and rested his own against mine.


	4. Chapter 4

By the time we landed back on Berk, I was feeling much better, whatever wave passing by a little while before we landed. Still cautious and worried, Hiccup helped me off of Toothless and held onto my hand as we closed in on Gobber’s smithy.

“You wanna sit down while I do this?” I shook my head and smiled at him.

“I feel a lot better now, I promise.” He raised an eyebrow as he removed his helmet. “It takes more than a little dizziness to knock me down,” I teased. He smiled affectionately at me, then leaned down to kiss my temple before pulling me into the smithy.

“The pride of Berk!” Stoick gushed.

“Who finally decided to show up for work.” Gobber shot Hiccup a look. “Yay.” I giggled and patted his back a couple of times, leaving him to deal with the heat being thrown at him.

“Sorry. Got held up.” He turned to his dad as I leaned against the wall. “Hey, Dad, could I have a word?”

“Something you’re itching to tell me?” Hiccup looked back at me desperately, trying to douse his father’s enthusiasm.

“Not quite the itch you’re thinking of, but yes.” Stoick handed Hiccup his apron and guided him toward the front, where a large group of people were waiting for their saddles to be made.

“Good man! Now, lesson one. A chief’s first duty is to his people, so…” Stoick turned out to the crowd and changed the rune on the placard. “Forty one? Forty-”

“Could we just talk in private for-”

“-That’s me! That’s me! I’m next!” The man pushed his way through the rest of the crowd, who retaliated by protesting. “I was ahead of you! Excuse me, I’ve been here all day!” As he got closer, I recognized him as Starkard. “Okay, I want one of those high seaters, with lots of spikes, and a big stowage compartment.”

“Absolutely! You got it, sir!”

I shook my head. Stoick wasn’t listening to his son at all, because he was just assuming that Hiccup wanted to tell him that he was ready to become chief.

“Dad, this is actually a little more important than building saddles.”

“Ah-ah! Lesson two. No task is too small when it comes to serving your people. Excuse us, Grump.” Stoick and Hiccup carefully moved their way around the large dragon, causing him to stir.

“Grump! You let the forge die down again!”

Grump managed to slug his way around enough to face the forge, then vomited out a large blob of molten lava into the forge. But it ended up splattering in a few other places, setting some other things on fire. Quickly, I reached out and pulled on the fire extinguisher, putting all of the fires out before they could spread.

“That’s it, Grump! You’re going up for adoption!” Gobber cried, clearly frustrated. Stoick grabbed a box and started to fill it with some of Hiccup’s tools.

“Uh… okay, Dad?”

“Go on. Have away.”

“I really need to tell you about this new land we came across.” Hiccup followed his dad to the saddle-making stations as our other friends filed into the smithy.

“Another one?” Gobber seemed to be humoring us as he popped another attachment into where his hand was missing

“Any new dragons?” Fishlegs asked enthusiastically, eyes sparkling.

“We didn’t stick around to find out,” I explained, trying to push ahead the warning Hiccup was trying to provide.

“These folks weren’t particularly friendly.” Stoick threw some leather over the stand as Gobber changed out his attachment again.

“Oh, really?” Once again, he seemed to be humoring us. “Your Night Fury and Thunderdrum didn’t bring them cheering to the rooftops?”

“No, this was different. Not the standard ‘run for the hills’ hoo-ha I’ve come to enjoy.”

“‘Hoo-ha’?” I mouthed, confused by the, quite frankly, stupid term.

“These guys were trappers. Dragon Trappers.” I shook my head and focused on the matter at hand.

“You should have seen their fort! All blown apart and stuck in giant spikes of ice. It was weird.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. A-And worst of all, they thought we did it!”

“You know, you two are gonna get yourselves in serious trouble one of these days.”

“Yes, Gobber. You’ve been saying that since we were fifteen.” Hiccup smirked and made his way over to my side.

“I thought he said we were gonna get married when we were fifteen.” I could tell he was trying to be a little flirty, but there really wasn’t time for that. We hadn’t even brought up the most important point.

“One, that was sixteen. And two… I guess he was right about something.” Gobber rolled his eyes and started to brush out his facial hair.

“The point is, not everyone appreciates this way of life.”

“Aye, Gobber’s right, son. Best to keep to our own.” Stoick moved over to the cutting table, and now he and Hiccup were standing opposite of each other. “Besides, you’ll have more important uses for your time. Heh, heh. Once we make the big announcement.” He activated the large saw.

_I could say the same thing…_ I thought, my gut twisting.

Hiccup reached over and shut the saw off, a new anger and determination crossing his face and controlling his body language.

“They are building a dragon army.” The people out in the crowd turned toward us and began to whisper as they grew concerned. I offered an awkward smile in their general direction before turning back to Hiccup and Stoick. “O-or at least the guy they’re working for is. Uh… ‘Dargo… Bloody-fist’, or something.” I shook my head.

“Nope.” I couldn’t quite recall the name myself, but I knew _that_ wasn’t right.

I looked up and managed to catch a concerning look on Stoick’s face, before Tuffnut interjected with his usual, unnecessary comments.

“I’ll bloody his fist with my face if he tries to take my dragon.”

“Or mine!” Ruffnut cried. I pinched the bridge of my nose at their stupidity.

“Ugh, you’re such a moron.”

“A beautiful moron.”

“Yeah.” Ruff groaned in disgust, and I forced my eyes away from the massacre that was this weird triangle and put them back on Hiccup and his dad.

“Bludvist? Drago Bludvist?” Stoick’s voice almost had something akin to fear hiding in its depths. He grabbed his son’s shoulders and shook them slightly.

“Uh, yeah. Wait… you know him?” Stoick moved his gaze away from Hiccup, and I reached out to grab the younger Haddock’s hand, seeing that he was starting to panic.

Suddenly, his dad took off, booking it out of the smithy so fast, no one really reacted at first. Hiccup’s grip on my hand tightened, and his other hand moved to rest in the crook of my elbow.

“Who do you think he is…?” I managed to draw my eyes up into his and sigh.

“I don’t know, but if your dad’s afraid of him…” I trailed off, not needing to say more.

“Come on.” He released my hand and sprinted after Stoick. I started to do the same, when Astrid grabbed my arm and swung me around to face her.

“In case we don’t see you for a while, because we both know what Hiccup’s going to do, you _have_ to tell him.” I nodded absently and shook her off.

“When the time is right.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Ground all dragons!”

I’d managed to catch up with Hiccup and Stoick, finding the large man racing down into the stables before he started shouting at the people working in there.

“What? Why?” Hiccup was trying his best to get his dad’s attention, but to no avail.

“Seal the gates!” he ordered. “Lower the storm doors!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait, wait! What is happening?”

“Come on, you heard the man! Lock it down!” The doors to the stables started to shut.

“No dragon or Viking sets foot off this island until I give the word.”

“Wait, because some guy you knew is stirring up trouble in some faraway land?” Stoick finally stopped and looked down at us, but his gaze was bone-chilling, sending shudders down my spine.

“Because Drago Bludvist is a madman without conscience or mercy. “And if he’s built a dragon army…” Stoick paused for a moment, thinking of the horrible possibilities. “...gods help us all.” He turned right back to shouting out orders. “Get them into their pens. Quickly!”

“Aye, chief.” Hiccup pursued his father again, not wanting to give up.

“Then let’s ride back out there. We’ll follow those trappers to Drago, and talk some sense into him.” I couldn’t help but shake my head. Hiccup always wanted things to be peaceful, but sometimes, that wasn’t an option.

Or maybe that was just the Berserker in me talking.

“No. We fortify the island.”

“It’s our duty to keep the peace,” he protested.

“Peace is over, Hiccup. I must prepare you for war.” He looked shocked and alarmed.

“ _War?_ Dad, if Drago’s coming for our dragons, we can’t wait around for him to get here. Let’s go find him, and change his mind.”

“No. Some minds won’t be changed, Hiccup. Berk is what you need to worry about. A chief protects his own.”

Stoick moved away to reveal Toothless, looking up at us with big, curious eyes. My heart immediately melted at the sight of the cute dragon, and it quickly struck me just how important it was to protect him, and all the other dragons. But as soon as I stole a glance at Hiccup, I knew he wasn’t going to take this.

“Hiccup, don’t.”

“I have to.” He gave me a quick peck on the cheek before jumping onto Toothless, and as much as I wanted to stay behind and protect the other dragons, I knew I couldn’t abandon him. With a huff, I hoisted myself up into the Night Fury and grabbed onto Hiccup’s waist. He looked back at me curiously, and I shrugged.

“I have to, too.” He smiled at me, then patted Toothless to get him to take off.

“Hiccup!” We managed to swoop through the first reinforcements, and although it looked like things were going to close on us, we managed to get out in time.

“We’ll go back to where we found the Trappers, and search that area.” I smiled and shook my head at him.

“Not like I have much of a choice, love. We’re kind of stuck together.”

He laughed and turned his head around to face me, before leaning down and resting his forehead against mine. I sighed in content, and started to move to kiss him, when I noticed we were hurtling toward a rock spire.

“Hiccup!” He quickly steered Toothless out of the way of the spire, right before we hit it. The two of us sat there in silence for a moment, attempting to compose ourselves, before we both erupted into laughter. I reached up to move some of my wild hair from in front of my eyes as the laughter died down, pulling us back to reality.

Toothless leveled out in a clear stretch, which allowed Hiccup to turn around again and look at me. Carefully, he removed the glove from my right hand and laced his fingers through mine. I looked down at our conjoined hands for a moment, before meeting his eyes again.

“Why do you always do that?” He hummed, asking what I meant. “Remove my gloves before you hold my hands? I wear them for a reason!” I teased. He shook his head at my playfulness, then gently lifted my hand and placed a soft kiss on the back of it.

“Because I want to hold your hand, not some glove.”

“You made me those gloves, stupid.”

“But still…” A sigh escaped from his nostrils, before he did the same with the other hand, including kissing the knuckle. I reeled my head back slightly and raised a fiery eyebrow at him.

“What’s with you being all affectionate today? I mean, you’re still a pretty romantic person and all, but you’ve gone and cranked it up a notch.” He let go of one of my hands to help move Toothless up with the draft.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I honestly can’t pinpoint a specific thing.”

“Mm… We’ve been married for, what, almost a year now, and you’re _still_ so incredibly indecisive when it comes to these things.”

“What can I say?” I shook my head and reached around to kiss his cheek before settling one hand around his waist, and keeping the other locked tightly in his.

“You’re cheesy, but I love you.”

“Another thing someone’s been saying since we were sixteen.”

“Correction, _you_ were sixteen.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And I don’t recall telling you that I love you until I was about 20.”

“Are you really gonna do this?” I laughed and leaned against him, staring at the sky before us.

“Always. Congrats, you’re stuck with this for the rest of your life.” His sigh lifted me up and back down again.

“I’m glad.”


	6. Chapter 6

The temperature dropped once again as we entered the frozen part of the archipelago.

“Keep your eyes open,” Hiccup instructed, looking down over the water. The cold bit at my face as I looked around, and I pulled the cloak against my body as I shuddered. They had abandoned their fort, so we instead tried to search the area in the water around there. We rounded a corner, and I saw a small ship, floating out in the ocean.

“Hiccup.” I nudged him and pointed down, and once he followed my finger, he pushed Toothless to get closer.

The men on the deck spotted us, and immediately scrambled to fire their nets at us. Hiccup kept himself alert, dodging out of the way before any of them could even scratch us. We landed on the deck with a defiant clatter.

“And here I was worried we might turn up empty-handed,” Eret chuckled, a dark expression crossing his face. I yanked out my sword and held it up to defend Hiccup and I, but oddly enough, the man next to me pushed it down to lower it. I sat up straight and looked at him with a raised eyebrow as he held his hands up in surrender.

“Nope. It’s your lucky day. We give up.” I shook my head at him as the crew exchanged confused glances. Was he _trying_ to get us killed?

“That’s one Night Fury, and…” He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me down from Toothless, keeping a grip around me so that I couldn’t fight him off, which he knew I would try and do. As we walked through the group of confused Dragon Trappers, Hiccup threw a net over my head, disorienting me and pissing me off just a bit more. “...two of the finest dragon riders west of Luk Tuk. That outta make the boss happy, right?”

I grumbled in protest as Hiccup took my sword and shield and handed them to Eret, who was as confused as I was. I tried my best to pull back on him, but now that we were grown up, he was a bit stronger than I was, so he was able to pull me down into into the live well.

“Excuse us.”

“What are you doing?” I hissed as he forced me down the ladder. Toothless tried to follow us, peering down with big eyes.

“Toothless, stay.” He flipped the latch to lower the gate, and as soon as we were on the ground, his arm snaked back around my waist. “Dragons don’t really care for cramped spaces, so he’ll just hang out with you. He won’t be any trouble.” I could hear the people pull out their swords and spears. “Unless you do that. Wooden boat, big ocean. How’s your swimming?”

“Not good,” someone answered. I could feel Hiccup shift, and he moved to climb up the ladder, stopping just before he could get out. He removed his blade from his belt, and shot it up through the grate, then put it away and opened the grate.

“Oops, almost forgot. Can’t have armed prisoners.” He handed his sword up to one of the crew members, and I shook my head again.

“How is this a plan?” The crewman holding the sword pressed the button to release the Zippleback gas, and I braced myself for what I knew was coming.

“Just what every dragon trapper needs. One end coats the blade in Monstrous Nightmare saliva. The other sprays Hideous Zippleback gas. All it takes is a little spark and…” I heard the blade click open, and instinctually covered my head as an explosion shook the ship. “Oh, yeah, there you go.” I could hear Toothless happily gurgling from above. “Once they see you as one of their own, even the testiest of dragons can be trained, right, bud?”

“Give me that!” I could only assume that Eret took the blade from his crewman.

“What game are you playing?”

“No game. We just want to meet Drago.”

“Why?”  
“Because I’m going to change his mind about dragons.” From above, the crew members laughed at Hiccup, so I poked my head up to help prove his point.

“He can be really persuasive.” Hiccup reached out to pet Toothless, causing me to smile.

“Once you’ve earned his loyalty, there is nothing a dragon won’t do for you.”

“Puh! You won’t be changing any minds around here.” Eret’s stubbornness was _not_ helping right now.

“I can change yours. Right here. Right now.” Hiccup gently brushed my arm as he passed by me to step up on the deck. He reached over and set Toothless’ tail into the splayed position. “May I?”

Just as he got the last word out of his mouth, a dragon swooped down and snatched him out of the air. Panicked, I jumped up and looked at the sky, snatching my weapons back from the men. A large fury of wings started slicing holes in the sails of the ships, as I realized I was stuck on the ship without a dragon. I looked at Toothless, who had a curious expression in his eyes, and I shrugged.

“Sorry, bud. I have no idea how to work your tail.”

He bounded over to me and scooped me up onto the saddle and started climbing up the mast, causing me to hold on tightly so that I wouldn’t fall off. As soon as we reached the top, I looked around until I spotted what had snatched up Hiccup. It was a Monstrous Nightmare… a very _familiar_ Monstrous Nightmare.

“Snotlout…” I grumbled. Sure enough, as I looked around, the others had shown up, attacking the ship on their dragons. “Oh, my gods…” I muttered, shaking my head.

I watched as Ruffnut extended her arms out and got enveloped by some net, throwing off her and her brother. My gaze snapped back to Hookfang and Snotlout just as Hiccup flipped out of the Nightmare’s grip and extended out the wing flaps on his suit. Seeing that he was able to escape, I patted Toothless, indicating that I was going to get down. Quickly, I grabbed onto the rope that was attached the mast, used it to slide down onto the deck, and shoved Eret’s arm to throw off the cannon he was aiming at Hiccup.

“Hold your fire!” I ordered.

Hiccup managed to glide toward the mast of the ship, and used some of the broken canvas to glide down and stand by my side, his hand linking firmly with mine.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Gobber and Grump landed, causing the boat to rock and Eret’s crew to scatter. I almost fell off my feet, but luckily, Hiccup caught me and helped me stand back up straight.

“We’re here to rescue you!” Gobber announced proudly.

“I don’t need to be rescued!” he snapped back.

“Enough!”

The boat dipped significantly as Stoick landed on Skullcrusher. I leaned a bit closer to Hiccup as his father got off, fuming. His eyes looked as though if one of these crewmen stepped out of line, he would throw them right off this ship. Eret, however, didn’t seem to pick up on this, and strode confidently toward Stoick, looking as though he would be cherished by the chief.

“Well, didn’t you just pick the wrong ship, eh? I am Eret, son of-”

Stoick shoved Eret’s face to the side, sending him slamming into Grump. He attempted to stand, but Gobber clubbed him on the head, which caused him to fall back down onto the deck. He then instructed his dragon to sit on Eret, keeping him from moving.

He wheezed, “Get… this… thing… off… me!” Gobber turned around and smiled at the other members of the crew.

“Anyone else?” They all awkwardly mumbled, but no one stepped up. “That’s what I figured.”

“You. Saddle up. We’re going home.” I could feel Hiccup fuming beside me.

“No.”

“Of all the irresponsible-”

“-I’m trying to protect our dragons and prevent a war?” he shouted. “How is that irresponsible?”

“Because war is what he _wants,_ son!” Stoick moved back slightly, sighing as he tried to compose himself to explain.

“Years ago, there was a great gathering of chieftains to discuss the dragon scourge we all faced. Into our midst came a stranger from a strange land, covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin. He carried no weapon and spoke softly, saying that he, Drago Bludvist, was a man of the people, devoted to freeing mankind from the tyranny of dragons. He claimed that he alone could control the dragons and that he alone could keep us safe, if we chose to bow down to follow him.” We all started laughing at the ridiculous proposition, knowing Stoick would never allow it.

“Stupid.”

“Good one.”

“Aye, we laughed, too. Until he wrapped himself in his cloak and cried out, ‘Then see how well you do without me!’ The rooftop suddenly burst into flames, and from it, armored dragons descended, burning the hall to the ground. I… was the only one to survive.” The horror of reality settled in, and I found my hand moving up to the middle of Hiccup’s arm. “Men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with.”

“Hiccup, I don’t know about this anymore…” I muttered.

“Maybe.” He pulled away from my grasp and made his way over to Toothless with determination.

“Hiccup…”

“I’m still going to try.” He jumped up onto Toothless and locked eyes with his dad. “This is what I’m good at. And if I could change _your_ mind… I can change his, too. Come on.” I looked back at all the others, before jumping back up on Toothless.

“I have to. I can’t leave him alone.”

I held on tight as Hiccup urged Toothless into the air, speeding off to nowhere to find someone whose location was unknown


	7. Chapter 7

The sun was setting around us as Toothless evened out into a glide above the clouds. I could feel just how tense Hiccup was as I leaned against his back. It killed me to see him like this, fuming and lost, unsure of what to do next.

“Agh!” I was suddenly thrown back and crushed beneath Hiccup’s weight as he leaned back, crying out in frustration.

“Don’t worry, bud. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. I promise.”

“Hey, Hiccup, that’s touching and all,” I wheezed, “but you’re kinda crushing me.”

“Oh. Sorry.” He moved himself back up, but his shoulders immediately tensed up again. I sighed and gently moved a hand up into his hair, trying to calm him down.

“We just need to get ourselves together, try and figure out exactly what we need to do and where we need to go, okay?” He just grunted and leaned down a little more. “Hiccup, you’re upset, you’re frustrated, no one makes good decisions in that mindset.”

“We can’t waste time, Reign.”

“Hiccup…” I cautioned. Before I could launch into some sort of lecture, a figure pulled up beside the two of us.

“Aw, come on, Dad! Really?”

I turned around to look at them, and my blood ran cold. The figure was adorned in an ominous mask, a large cape draped over their shoulder. Not removing my eyes from the figure, I reached out and shook Hiccup’s shoulder.

“Uh, Hiccup, that’s _not_ your dad.”

“Reign, what are you-”

He followed my gaze and stopped mid sentence, clearly as confused and horrified as I was. They stared back at us for a few moments before dipping back down below the clouds. We looked down to where they had gone, but there was no trace of them anywhere.

“Okay. No sudden moves.”

Everything was silent for a moment, before the figure exploded up through the clouds, revealing themselves to be on the back of a four winged dragon. We were forced to stop in our tracks as they circled around us, causing Toothless to hover there as we stared back at each other. Ominously, they pointed their staff down in our direction.

“Hold on, hold on.”

Suddenly, a dragon flew over our heads and snatched up Hiccup from the back of Toothless and carried him away with the figure. I started to panic as the figure flew away after the dragon that took Hiccup, trying my best to get a grasp on what was going on.

“ _Hiccup!”_

I managed to climb up the the front of Toothless, but it was too late. He roared loudly before an extreme amount of pain struck my back violently as we crashed through a layer of ice. The water froze me to my core, the ice water overtaking blood in my veins. I could feel that my shield was pulling me down, despite the fact that Gronkle Iron was supposed to be practically weightless. Struggling against the current trapped beneath the ice, Toothless and I managed to bob up to the surface. I took a deep breath that stung my lungs, and grabbed onto Toothless to keep myself from going down again. He roared toward the sky, trying to draw attention to us, but there was no one around to hear it.

“Bud, you’ve gotta calm down.” Suddenly, Toothless was pulled down, beneath my grasp. “Toothless!”

I dove down below the surface to see a group of Sea Shockers pulling on Toothless, for whatever purpose. I swam down and pulled out my sword, trying to use its shiny surface to distract them. It caught their attentions, but they didn’t let go of Toothless, and I could feel my lungs starting to burn as my air was giving out. I struggled to get back to the surface, and as soon as I took a breath, I turned to dive beneath the surface. Just before I could, however, I felt something wrap around my shoulders and pull me up into the air. I started to flail as my heart beat wildly against my chest. I looked up to see that it was another one of those dragons, pulling me up into the sky to do who-knows-what with me.

My eyes flicked back down to the sea, and thankfully, Toothless was being lifted up and out of the water as well, saved from the Sea Shockers by the dragons that belonged to some mysterious person… that Hiccup was stuck with.

I started to panic again at the thought of Hiccup being trapped with a potentially dangerous figure, someone that we didn’t know. Any number of things could have happened at this point, and if he got hurt… or worse- and I never told him- I didn’t know how I’d be able to deal with that. But all I could do was trust that, because these dragons had been sent to rescue us, they wouldn’t hurt Hiccup, and knew that they were rescuing us.

They brought us to an island with more of that strange, green ice sticking out of the top of it. Either this place was attacked as well, or maybe… they were the one who attacked. The dragons brought us into a dark cave, where a group of dragons were surrounding someone, curious. That had to be Hiccup, there was no other explanation.

Sure enough, Toothless and I were dropped down in front of Hiccup, at the sound of some sort of rattling. His eyes brightened, and he rushed over to the two of us.

“Reign! Toothless!” Toothless shook himself off as I found my legs and arms feeling like jelly.

“It’s okay. I’m glad to see you, too, bud.” He moved his eyes down to me and crouched. “You really had we worried there. Can you stand?”

“I don’t know. I feel weird.”

He reached under me and picked me up, holding me bridal-style in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as the figure rattled their staff, drawing our attention their way. The dragon nearest to their staff opened their mouth, igniting a flame. The other dragons in the circle followed, until we were all illuminated by firelight. Hiccup shifted me in his arms slightly as I gripped on tighter, growing afraid. They stood up straight, and Toothless wrapped his tail around the two of us, growling defensively. The figure crouched onto the ground, dropping their sword and shield before almost jumping forward until they were right in front of Toothless. They outstretched their hand to the Night Fury, offering some gesture that caused him to collapse, purring happily. I looked up at Hiccup in alarm as they ran their hand over Toothless, before moving closer to Hiccup and I. I made him set me down, but he kept one arm around me, the two of us ready to strike if this turned hostile.

The figure reached out to touch Hiccup, and he leaned back, trying to avoid them touching him. He started to stutter and bounce his eyes around. They nearly rested their hand on his cheek, when they suddenly gasped and pulled themselves back onto the ground.

“Oh…” Their voice was muffled behind the mask. “Hiccup?”

The two of us exchanged a glance. How did this person know his name…?

“Uh…”

They removed their mask, revealing an older-looking woman, her green eyes wide in alarm, maybe with some relief buried behind them.

“C-Could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?” She stood as something resembling a smile crossed her lips, looking at Hiccup with a strange sort of affection.

“Uh, should I… should I know you?”

“No. You were only a babe. But a mother never forgets.”

A gasp involuntarily slipped out of my mouth as I looked over the woman again. She couldn’t be Hiccup’s mother, that wasn’t possible! She was dead, gone. Unless…

I could feel Hiccup starting to hyperventilate, but before I could do anything to calm him, his supposed mother jumped in.

“Shh… shh…” She looked around at her dragons before smiling back up at the two of us. “Come.” She dashed off between her dragons, going down another strange tunnel and disappearing into the darkness.

I stuttered. “Can we trust her?”

Hiccup didn’t answer for a moment, looking down, back up, and then around at the dragons.

“We have to try.”


	8. Chapter 8

We followed her down the twisting paths of the cave, a vague amount of green light coming through that just allowed us to see so that we wouldn’t fall down. Hiccup had been trying to call out to the woman that was supposedly his mother, but she wouldn’t stop running.

“Hold on!” he cried. “Wait just a minute! Come back here!”

“This way. Come.” I could tell Hiccup was starting to get frustrated.

“You can’t just say something like that and run off! You’re my _mother_? I mean, what the- do you grasp how _insane_ it sounds? I have questions!”

“Come. Quickly!” We approached a sloped rock, and while his supposed mother was able to climb up it, no problem, Hiccup kept slipping down if he tried to get a grip on the part she had slipped through.

“Where have you been all this time?” He slipped back down again. “What’ve you been doing? They said you were _dead_!” Toothless finally stepped in to hoist Hiccup up onto the rock ledge, then used his head to boost me up. Hiccup took my hands and yanked me over the rock, pulling me through the gap. “Everyone thinks you were eaten by…”

Hiccup trailed off as we jumped down onto the ground, the world around us capturing our interests in full. The sunlight caused me to squint, a sudden change from the darkness of the caves, but as soon as I was able to adjust, I gasped and reached out for Hiccup’s hand. Multitudes of dragons circled around a large, mossy spire of ice that leaned against the cliffs surrounding it. Little baby Gronkles played and wrestled with each other, causing me to smile.

Wide-eyed joy and curiosity pushed us to wander further in, so lost in the full glory of it all, that when a large dragon zipped past our heads, Hiccup and I stumbled a bit. The dragons that had been circling landed on the different spires, coming to rest so that they could stare at these new strangers here. As I looked around at everything, I managed to catch the smile on Hiccup’s face, and I felt my heart jump. There were only a few things in the world that gave him that smile, and this… this was the epitome of his joy.

Hiccup jumped as he looked up to see his mother on the back of a large, unknown dragon, both looking down at us in curiosity. They seemed to have a strong bond, one that could potentially rival that of Hiccup and Toothless. I moved my hands up to the crook of his elbow, and leaned against Hiccup’s arm as he stared at his mother in awe.

“This is where you’ve been for twenty years?” She nodded. “You’ve been rescuing them,” he marveled. “Unbelievable.”

“You’re not upset?”

“What? No.” He paused for a moment and sighed. “I-I don’t know. It’s a bit much to get my head around, to be frank. It’s not every day you find out your mother is some kind of crazy, feral, vigilante dragon lady.”

She chuckled, then hooked her stick around her dragon’s wing, using them to descend onto the ground. She smiled at the two of us as she got closer.

“At least I’m not boring, right?”

“I suppose there is that… one… specific thing.” I let go of Hiccup and reached out to pet one of the dragons that kept nudging him, so that he could continue to focus on talking to his mother. But I couldn’t keep my eyes off the two of them. They really _did_ look alike, now that I could get a look at them together. And they both seemed to have that love for dragons.

“D-Do you like it?” she asked cautiously.

“I-I-I don’t have the words.” Toothless grumbled as a group of dragons surrounded him, but when he realized he was trapped in, he cowered and lowered closer to the ground. One of the dragons started to sniff Toothless’ wings, then lifted it up, causing Toothless’ eyes to widen. His flailing scared away the other dragons, and the three of us laughed at the adorable scene.

“C-Can I…?” She crouched down and reached out to pet Toothless. “Oh, he’s beautiful! Oh.”

After Toothless sniffed the back of her hand, he gurgled and nuzzled into her cheek, practically showering Hiccup’s mother with affection. “Incredible.” Toothless couldn’t leave her alone, nuzzling and playing with her as she laughed and marveled over him. “He might very well be the last of his kind.”

The affectionate smile on Hiccup’s face caused my heart to melt, and I couldn’t help but wrap an arm around his shoulders. He smiled down at me before snaking an arm around my waist.

Toothless rolled over and purred as Hiccup’s mother was inspecting his talons.

“And look, he’s your age!”

“Wow.”

“No wonder you get along so well.” Toothless playfully nodded his head up and down with his jaw open. “Oh, yeah? Oh, yeah?” Hiccup’s mother laughed as Toothless retracted his teeth. “And retractable teeth. How did you manage…?”  
“I found him in the woods.”

Oh, boy. Here came the awkward conversation.

“He was shot down and wounded.”

With an angry grunt, Hiccup’s mother stood and started to approach different dragons that were surrounding us.

“This Snafflefang lost his leg to one of Drago Bludvist’s iron traps.” She held up the Snafflefang’s stump where his leg should have been. “This Raincutter had her wing sliced by razor netting. And this, oh, poor Hobblegrunt was blinded by a tree snare, and left to die, alone and scared. And what of this? Did Drago and his trappers do this, too?” Hiccup chuckled awkwardly as his mother held up Toothless’ prosthetic tail.

“Oh. Yeah. Well, crazy thing is… I’m actually the one who shot him down.” She glared at Hiccup, a mix on confusion and anger on her face. “Hey, it’s-it’s okay, though. He got me back.” Toothless nuzzled Hiccup affectionately, and he used his free arm to pet the loving dragon. “Right, bud? You couldn’t save all of me, could you? You just had to make it even. So, peg leg!” Hiccup held up his metal leg and shook it around a little bit in a joking manner, causing me to laugh. Toothless suddenly nudged Hiccup up onto his back, and the laughter turned to an affectionate smile as he scratched under his chin.

“Uh… what did you father think of your Night Fury friend?”

“Oh, he-he didn’t take it all that well,” I answered, crossing my arms. “But then, he changed. They all did.”

“Pretty soon, everyone back home had dragons of their own.”

“If only it were possible.”

“No, really.”

“Believe me, I tried as well, but people are not capable of change, Hiccup. Some of us… were just born different.” Hiccup gently slid off of Toothless, and reattached himself to me. “Berk was a land of kill or be killed, but I believed peace was possible. It was a very unpopular opinion. Then one night, a dragon broke into our house, finding you in the cradle. I rushed to protect you. But what I saw was proof of everything I believed. This wasn't a vicious beast, but an intelligent, gentle creature, whose soul reflected my own. But your father spooked the dragon, causing it to give you a cut on your chin. And then, it carried me away, taking me here." My eyes flickered to the scar, now knowing where it came from. “You and your father nearly died that night. All because I couldn’t kill a dragon.”

“Eh, runs in the family,” I smiled, moving some of Hiccup’s hair from in front of his eyes.

“It broke my heart to stay away, but I believed you’d be safer if I did.”

“How did you survive?”

“Oh, Cloudjumper never meant to harm me. He must have thought I belonged here in the home of the great Bewilderbeast.”

I looked back at his mother’s large dragon, striding pridefully behind us. Hiccup’s mother led us over to the edge of the cliff, which overlooked a large, red and white dragon with threatening tusks, fast asleep in its watery nest. I looked down at it in amazement. That thing was almost as large as the Red Death.

“The alpha species. One of the very few that still exist.” It grumbled as it slowly opened its eyes. “Every nest has its queen, but _this_ is the king of all dragons. With his icy breath, this graceful giant built our nest, a safe haven for dragons everywhere.”

Realization suddenly hit me.

“Wait, that’s the ice-spitter? He’s responsible for all that destruction?”

“He protects us. We all live under his care and his command.” A group of baby dragons screeched behind us before jumping down in Toothless’ path, startling him as they jumped around him and screeched even louder. “All but the babies, of course…” Cloujumper roared loudly, sending the baby dragons to go bother the Bewilderbeast. “...who listen to no one,” she laughed.

“Aw…”

The Bewilderbeast blew the little babies off of its face before turning and standing up at full height, towering above us. Hiccup’s mother bowed down as Hiccup and I stared in awe, its turquoise eyes staring straight through us.

“I’ve lived among them for twenty years, Hiccup, discovering their secrets.” His mother and I stepped out of the way as the Bewilderbeast blew some ice straight onto Hiccup’s face. I laughed as his hair stood straight up, eyebrows and the front of his hair now a glistening white. “He likes you.” He brushed the snow off aggressively.

“Wow.”

“You two must be hungry.”

“Uh, yeah, I could eat,” I shrugged, trying to hide the fact that I was absolutely _starving_.

“Good. It’s feeding time.” She took Hiccup’s hand and took him over to Toothless, then came back over to me in my place. “I never really introduced myself. My name is Valka.” I smiled at her.

“I’m Reign.” I paused awkwardly for a moment. “I’m- uh… I’m your son’s wife.”

“I could tell,” she chuckled. “He can’t keep his eyes, or his hands, off of you.” I blushed a deep red and looked at my feet before smiling at her. “I’ll leave you to him.” Valka nodded her head toward her son before getting up on Cloudjumper.

I turned on my heel and hoisted myself up onto Toothless, securing my arms around his waist. With an affectionate smile, he leaned back and kissed my forehead, then took off after his mother.


	9. Chapter 9

We’d gone so far out, the only land were chunks of solid ice and snow, floating in the endless ocean. Cloudjumper did a twirl in the air before he and Valka stopped. Hiccup and I turned around to see the large herd of dragons stopping in mid-air, hovering in anticipation.

“Hey, I-I thought we were going to eat,” Hiccup spoke up.

“Oh, we are.”

She swung herself around and stood atop her dragon, holding out her hand to completely halt the movement. She smiled eagerly at the two of us just before the sea started rumbling and bubbling below us. Three Sea Shockers circled around the bubbles, interested in whatever their source was. However, they quickly swam out of the way as the Bewilderbeast shot out from the sea and bellowed loudly. It shot water up into the air as it started to fall back down below, causing it to literally rain fish. Valka laughed joyfully as the dragons all dove to catch as much fish as possible.

Toothless looked up at Hiccup and I with big eyes, asking if he could go after some as well. Hiccup gestured his hand down, signaling him to go ahead, and Toothless suddenly shot down. I desperately grabbed at Hiccup’s waist as the wind bit at my face, my cloak flying out behind me as he snatched several fish out of the air, a smile stretching onto his face as the food dangled out of his mouth. I found myself laughing uncontrollably, even as Hiccup looked back and planted a kiss on my cheek. I pulled away slightly and held my hands up, still laughing.

A playful look crossed his face, and as the other dragons flew back to their home, he steered Toothless down to land on one of the larger masses of ice and snow. I raised an eyebrow at him, but then found myself crying out as I was suddenly thrown from Toothless’ back and into the snow, my back hitting the soft bank. Laughter overtook me again as I sat up and looked at Hiccup’s mischievous grin.

“You…” I started to stand up, but before I could do anything, Hiccup rolled off of Toothless and pinned me down. “Hiccup, stop, I’m cold!” He picked up some snow from behind my head and threw it down on my stomach. That however, caused me to panic, and I started to struggle. “Hiccup, don’t do that. I’m being serious!” He finally noticed that I had a frantic expression on my face and helped me up before brushing the snow off of me.

“Are you okay?” He got closer and placed his hands on my arms. “What was that about?” I shook my head, not wanting to say anything yet.

“Nothing, just… you know I don’t do well in the cold.” He raised his eyebrow.

“Are you sure?” I offered him a smile.

“Of course.” I leaned forward and kissed him as his mother landed, smiling at the two of us. “Hey, Hiccup, we should show your mom that map you’ve been working on.”

“Oh, yeah, you’ll love this.” He removed the journal from the pocket on his leg and pulled it out to present it to his mother as I attempting to calm down.

_Things are going to come out eventually, Reign. You’ve been putting off telling him, but you have to. He’s your husband, and he loves you, so you shouldn’t be so worried. Just tell him when the two of you get back. He’s going to be happy, you know that._

I snapped out of my thoughts and smiled as I watched Hiccup explain the map.

“And then, from Dragon Island, we found this archipelago…” He looked up when he noticed that his mother wasn’t listening, instead drawing intricate lines and patterns in the snow. I walked over to admire her work, realizing it was Hiccup’s map, drawn on a larger scale.

“There,” she stated proudly.

“Whoa,” Hiccup sighed. I moved my gaze over to Toothless as he bellowed, laughing when I realized he was drawing nonsense in the snow with an icicle, concentrating intensely on what he was doing. The Night Fury sat down to admire his work once he’d finished, but found that his drawing tool was fused to his tongue, causing the three of us to laugh harder.

“Come.”

Valka managed to get the icicle off of Toothless’ tongue, then climbed up onto Cloudjumper and waited for us to get onto our own dragon before taking off. Valka guided us to what appeared to be a geyser of air, smiling at the two of us as she flew directly over the stream and allowed it to lift her and her dragon up into the air on its own. I gripped tighter onto Hiccup’s waist as he flew over it, feeling my heart and stomach jump as we were launched into the air suddenly. Hiccup whooped as the two of us held on for dear life, his mother still smiling. She was somehow standing and balancing as though it were nothing, then started jumping from dragon to dragon; she danced over our heads before slipping herself off of Toothless’ wing and landing back on Cloudjumper. Satisfied- and clearly ready to eat dinner herself- she motioned of us to head back.

“Oh, when I’m up here, I don’t even feel the cold. I just feel…”

“...free,” Hiccup finished. He and his mother smiled at each other, and she puffed her chest out, extending her arms and closing her eyes.

“This is what it is to be a dragon, Hiccup.”

“It’s all well and good to call yourself a dragon…” He reached down and locked Toothless’ tail, then unclipped himself from the dragon. “... but can you fly?”

Suddenly, he jumped from Toothless’ back and let himself plummet for a bit, before slipping his arms through the belts and shooting his arms out, extending the flaps of his wing suit. I watched him, bent down and ready to catch him when the wind decided to was done pushing him.

Without me telling him to do it, Toothless grumbled and dove down in pursuit of Hiccup, which was actually a good idea, that way we were close when something happened. Hiccup cheered into the wind, and flipped himself over so that he was now floating on his back. Valka urged Cloudjumper to dive down, then slowly rose up beside Hiccup, laughing and smiling at her son’s accomplishment.

In that split second we weren’t paying attention, Hiccup had steered himself straight toward a rock formation. I panicked as Toothless dove straight for his rider, trying to get to him before he crashed. Thankfully, we caught up, and just before he took what would be a fatal blow, I pulled him into my arms and Toothless curled himself up around the both of us, violently bouncing and jarring as we shot through the hole in the rock formation and crashed onto the ground. As soon as we had landed, Hiccup shot up, out of my arms, and yelled.

“Whoo!” He jumped in the air as I pushed myself up and looked at Toothless, my unamused expression mirroring his. “Man, almost!” Toothless sneezed some of the snow off his nose. “We just about had it that time!” Still unamused with the stunt Hiccup has just pulled, Toothless glared at his rider before sweeping his tail out and knocking Hiccup off his feet. I laughed and leaned against Toothless, needing to take a second. He looked up at me with big, green eyes before nuzzling into my stomach.

“I know, I know. You and Astrid are so pushy,” I laughed.

Valka raced over to her son as he got himself up and started admiring the wings on his suit.

“Incredible,” she marveled.

“Well, not so bad yourself.” She moved from looking at the wing to inspecting her son for injuries, resting her hand against his cheek as she reached it. He smiled at her before gently nuzzling into her hand, causing her smile to grow.

“All this time, you took after me. And…” Her expression dropped. “...where was I? I’m so sorry Hiccup. Can we start over?” He didn’t respond. “Will you give me another chance?” He seemed to like that idea. “I-I can teach you all that I’ve learned these past twenty years. Like…” She made her way to Toothless and extended her hand out, giving me a silent cue to get up. She made her way around his side, then carefully pressed her fingertips into his neck, causing him to shake as secondary fins popped up all down his back.

“Wow.”

“Now you can make those tight turns.” It took Toothless a second to realize what had happened, but as soon as he saw his new set of fins, he started bouncing around happily and flapping them together to show them off.

“Did you know about this?”

“Every dragon has its secrets. And… I’ll show them all to you. We’ll unlock every mystery, find every last species- together, as mother and son.” I crinkled my brow, not only had I been erased from that picture, but Hiccup staying here with his mother would have bigger consequences than he realized at the moment.

While the two of them watched Toothless pop up from the snow- only to have Cloudjumper jump more on his head- Hiccup gave no response to her proposition.

“This gift we share, Hiccup, it bonds us. This is who you are, son. Who we are. We will change the world for all dragons. We will make it a better, safer place.”

“Yeah, I mean, that sounds amazing.” I kept my expression made of stone. He couldn’t be serious, could he?

But then again. If this is what made him happy… it may be a sacrifice I’d have to make.

Valka practically jumped on her son as she hugged him, shocking him for a few seconds before he hugged her back.

“Oh, this is so great!” he exclaimed, pushing away from his mother. “Now you, Reign, and I can go talk to Drago together.”

“What?” His mom seemed to find this idea funny. “There’s no talking to Drago.”

“But we have to-”

“No. We must protect our own.”

_That was the exact thing Stoick said… but he included people in at as well._

“Come on.” Hiccup scoffed. “We should be getting back.” I reached out and took Hiccup’s hands and brought his eyes up to meet mine.

“Let’s go back with your mom, we’ll collect ourselves, and when you have a _plan_ , we’ll head back out there,” I suggested. He nodded, and seemingly out of nowhere, his expression softened.

“I can’t leave you behind,” he sighed. “I mean, you gave up living with your family and being chief to live on Berk, I should honor that.” I smiled and kissed one of his knuckles.

“But I did it to stay with someone whom I promised I would support, no matter what decision he made. And if your decision is to study dragons with your mom, then I say go for it.”

He suddenly wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me, shocking me for a moment before I placed my hands on his arms and kissed back.

“I’m not leaving you. We’re going to change Drago’s mind, then we’re going to head back to Berk, and who knows from there?” His expression changed again. “Maybe a family?”

I sighed and placed a kiss on his cheek.

“Maybe."


	10. Chapter 10

Hiccup re-adjusted his armor as Toothless woke from his nap. While the Night Fury had been asleep, Hiccup and I had come up with enough of a plan to get us to Drago, and decided it was time to go.

“Well, bud… we can’t wait around for Drago to attack this place. We’ve got to find him first.” Toothless roared to get the baby dragons off of him, but one stubborn one hung onto his tail for a little while longer. “Let’s go.”

I turned away from Hiccup for a moment, and took a deep breath. I said I would tell him when we got back, and I hadn’t yet. So I had to do it now.

“Hey, Hiccup?” He hummed in acknowledgement. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Just as I turned around, a hand wrapped around Hiccup’s mouth, muffling his voice. My eyes widened slightly as I took a step back, and as soon as I looked up, my eyes went even wider.

“Easy now.” Hiccup managed to push away, and I reached out to take his hand as the two of us faced his dad.

“Are you kidding me?” he hissed. “How did you get in here?”

“The same way we’re getting you both out.”

“‘We?’” I questioned. Just then, Gobber popped out from the cave.

“All clear.”

“Toothless, come.” Stock grabbed Hiccup’s arm and started to drag us out.

“Uh, wait, uh, wait…. Okay, uh, Dad, there-there’s something you need to know.”

“Yeah, yeah, tell me on the way,” he said dismissively.

“Well, this isn’t an ‘on the way’ kind of update, actually,” I persisted.

“I’ve heard enough, you two.”

“More-More of the earth- shattering development variety.” Hiccup lifted me up over some rocks as we pursued his father.

“Yeah, yeah, just add it to the pile.” Hiccup and I started to panic as he squeezed through the hole that led straight to Valka.

“Yeah, I, uh, uh. Dad, unlike most surprises I spring on you, this is one you’ll like, I promise. You just have to handle it delicately. So…” I could see he blue light up ahead, and I knew we were running out of time.

We managed to catch up to Gobber, who was frozen in the entrance, staring for a few moments before turning to face us with a shocked expression.

“Uh… you might want to take this one.” He moved out of the way.

“Huh?” In preparation for the worst, Stoick pulled out his sword and gripped it tightly.

“Oh, boy…”

“Oh, uh, Stoick, could you put the sword away? Please?” Hiccup and I followed him out into the light, trying to diffuse before he did something stupid.

Stoick gasped, and his eyes went wide as he stared at the figure before him. She stood tall, with her staff in one hand, looking back at her husband with scared eyes. The sword fell from his hands, and he removed his helmet from the top of his head as he continued to stare at her.

“I know what you’re going to say, Stoick.” Her voice was breaking. “How could I have done this? Stayed away all these years, and why didn’t I come back to you?” I could feel Hiccup shudder, so I wrapped a reassuring arm around him. “To our son? Well… what sign did I have that you could change, Stoick? That anyone on Berk could?” Stoick began to trudge his way up to her, some other force seeming to push him toward her. “I pleaded so many times to stop the fighting, to find another answer. But did any of you listen?”

“This is why I never married,” Gobber muttered, breaking the tension slightly. “This, and one other reason.”

Hiccup and I smiled at each other, happy that Gobber had sort-of admitted what we’d been assuming for a few years now. Hopefully, there was another Viking out there for him.

“I know that I left you to raise Hiccup alone, but I thought he’d be better off without me. And I was wrong, I see that now.” Stock was starting to back her against the ice, but something told me he wouldn't hurt her. “Oh! Stop being so stoic, Stoick. Go on, shout, scream, say something!”

Stoick reached out and placed his hand on the side of her face, holding her there to admire her.

“You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you,” he whispered, as though he couldn’t find words. Valka’s eyes widened in shock at his affection, but her guard seemed to lower as Stoick bent down to kiss her. Hiccup smiled at his parents, then reached down to rest against my arm, clearly both overwhelmed and happy. It had been an exciting day, after all, and things were just now starting to fall together.

“I, uh… I was going to make dinner…” Valka stuttered. Stoick released her and smiled.

“Then we’ll help.” She nodded and led us all out of that one room into another, where there was already s place to make a fire, and even some dishes she’d clearly carved. As she and Stoick prepared dinner, Hiccup buzzed around and told her all about the new Berk. I had decided to take a seat against Toothless, realizing all of this excitement wasn’t good for me.

“Mom, you wouldn’t even recognize it. Where we used to make weapons, we now build saddles, wing slings. We-we even fix dragon teeth.” Hiccup took some fish from the large basket and set it on a board. You-you wouldn’t believe how much everything has changed.”

“Aye, your son and his wife have changed Berk for the better. I think we did well with this one, Val.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

Stoick placed his hands on Valka’s shoulders, startling her and causing her to drop the fish. Toothless and Cloudjumper immediately raced to snatch up the lost food, causing me to fall on my back.

“I’ve got it,” Stoick chuckled. “I got it.” He handed the board to Valka as Hiccup races over to make sure that I was okay. At that moment, Cloudjumper hacked up the fish he had consumed to offer to Toothless, and I felt an intense wave of nausea hit me as I looked at the fish bits.

“Oh, gods…” I covered my eyes and looked away just as Toothless started to chow down, taking deep breaths to calm my stomach.

“I’m, uh… a little out of practice,” Val joked.

“Well, you know, I didn’t marry you for your cooking.” Hiccuo finally allowed himself to relax, taking a seat beside me and musing the top of my head as he wrapped his arms around me.

“I hope not! Her meatballs could kill more beasts than a battle axe. I’ve still got a few knocking around in here!”

“And once you move back in with all your dragons, old Drago won’t even stand a chance. Everything will be okay.” I could see that all of this was overwhelming Valka.

“Slow down, love. It’s a lot to take in.” He blushed sheepishly.

“Oh, gotcha.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek, drawing his attention down to me. The two of us stared at each other, and I could feel my heart racing. However, the moment was broken up when Stoick started whistling a tune, taking the water jug Valka had been filling up from her hands and setting it down.

“Oh, I love this one.” I leaned into Hiccup and placed my head on his chest.

“Remember our song, Val? ‘ _I’ll swim and sail on savage seas with ne’er a fear of drowning, and gladly ride the waves of life if you will marry me. No scorching sun, nor freezing cold will-’”_

 _“-will stop me on my journey….”_ I shot Gobber a look. “Sorry.”

_“If you will promise me your heart…”_ He stopped and looked at Val, expecting her to jump in, but she remained silent. _“And love…”_ She still did nothing, until Stoick turned away.

_“...and love me for eternity.”_ She started to move around him. _“My dearest one, my darling dear, your mighty words astound me.”_ She then stuck up her arm, the dance clearly ingrained into her memory. _“But I’ve no need for might deeds when I feel your arms around me.”_

_“But I would bring you rings of gold, and even sing you poetry.”_

“Oh, would you?”

_“And I would keep you from all harm if you would stay beside me.”_

_“I have no use for rings of gold, I care not for your poetry. I only want your hand to hold.”_

_“I only want you near me.”_ Suddenly, I felt arms hoist me up from the ground, and the next thing I knew, Hiccup was twirling me around like a madman, causing me to laugh.

“ _To love and kiss, to sweetly hold. For the dancing and the dreaming. Through all my sorrows and your ligs, I’ll keep your laugh inside me. I’ll swim and sail on savage seas, with ne’er a fear of drowning, and gladly ride the waves of life if you will marry me!”_ Go bed was still holding out the last note as the rest of us stopped, now all looking at him in slight annoyance.

“I’m still going!” Hiccup tapped him. “I’m done.”

“I thought I’d have to die before we’d have to dance again.”

“No need for drastic measures,” Val teased.

“For you, my dear…” Stoick crouched down, and I felt Hiccup’s breath catch in his throat. “...anything. Will you come home, Val?” He paused. “Will you be my wife once again?” Toothless pushed the two of them together, causing them to laugh as Hiccup and I got closer. “We can be a family. What do you say?” Tears started to form in Valka’s eyes, and as she answered, she sniffled.

“Yes…” We all looked at each other, smiles taking over us as I reached out and squeezed Valka’s hand. 

“Great! I’ll do the cooking,” Gobber interjected.

“Thank Odin you didn’t listen to me, son. We never would’ve found each other.” Hiccup smiled and pulled me against his chest before pushing me back enough to look me in the eyes.

“Oh, this is so great!” he sighed. “Now the five of us can be a family.” My heart started to pound in my ears.

_Do it! Now’s the perfect chance!_

“Actually, it’ll be the six of us, if that’s okay.” I knew the others were looking at us now, but I kept my eyes buried in Hiccup’s.

“Reign, what are you talking about?” I raised my eyebrows at him, and he caught on. “Are you…?” He started to lose his voice. “Are you pregnant?”

I nodded wildly as the biggest smile I’d _ever_ seen stretched out onto his face, joyful tears welling up in our eyes. He pressed me firmly against him, running his hand through my hair before picking me up and spinning me around once, then he resumed the hugging.

“Oh, my gods… Oh, I love you. I mean, obviously I loved you before, but…” His babbling caused me to chuckle. “I’m gonna have a kid! I’m gonna be a father!”

“Yes, Hiccup,” I laughed. “We’re going to be parents.”

“I love you so much…”

“I love you more, crazy.” I leaned closer into his chest, feeling his heart beating right out of it. “I’ve been trying to tell you for forever, but the right time just never came up, so I’m a couple months in, now. But if I didn’t say anything on my own, either Toothless or Astrid would have forced it out of me,” I laughed.

“Wait… You knew, bud?” Toothless widened his eyes, trying to appear innocent.

“You know dragons can sense these sort of things, right?” Hiccup shook his head. “I’m sorry, who’s supposed to be the Dragon Master?” The two of us laughed, I finally turned out to face the judgement of everyone else. Val hugged me and smiled.

“Congratulations, both of you.”

“You two are going to be great parents,” Stoick gushed.

“Just don’t take them on Toothless when you’re doing tricks.” I laughed at Gobber’s advice.

“Oh, don’t worry. That’s not happening.”

I looked over at Toothless, and my euphoria dropped as his ear plates perked up and he started to growl.

“Toothless?” I followed his steely gaze to see masses of dragons screeching and fleeing from something.

“What’s happening?”

Loud booms suddenly echoed from outside as the entire cave system began to tremble. We all looked at each other before dashing out into the sunlight. My eyes panned over the entire scene, and I felt my heart drop.

Drago had found us.


	11. Chapter 11

“Val…” She was fuming as she tried to storm away from us. “Val, it’s all right, it’s all right.” Stoick grabbed her hand and forced her to turn around, to look at all of us. “We’re a team now.” That, thankfully, caught her attention. “Now, what do you want to do?”

“We have to save the dragons,” she answered without hesitating.

“Aye, you've got it. Come on, son!” The dashed back into the cave to get on Cloudjumper and Skullcrusher. With determination, I mounted Toothless, but Hiccup was hesitant.

“Are you two going to be okay?” My heart fluttered. I loved hearing him say ‘you two.’

“We’ve made it this far, haven’t we?” He still wasn’t buying it. “Besides, I can’t just sit here and do nothing.” He sighed, but jumped up and sat in front of me.

“If you start to feel weird, you tell me, and I’ll bring you back here. Deal?” I nodded and held onto his waist as Toothless zoomed out of the cave. From the air, we were able to get a better assessment of the situation.

There were a multitude of large, metal dragon traps laid out in a line, almost like a sort of defense mechanism. Armored dragons swooped through the air, some blasting away the ice, while others were going straight for the wild dragons. There were countless cannons, large bows, and soldiers to take us down, and to top it all off, a giant armada.

Long story short, things weren’t looking good for us.

Toothless did another lap around, and when we came back to the front this time, I noticed green gas spilling from one of the traps.

“Hiccup, look!”

The gas was ignited, causing a huge explosion, and from the cloud of smoke emerged Barf and Belch, with Ruff and Tuff on top of him. The rest of our Dragons Riders broke out of some of the other dragon traps and rushes toward us. As happy as I was to see them, I had to wonder how they got there in the first place.

Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff started lighting the cannons and bows on fire, trying to disarm them as much as possible without hurting the people, or dragons. Hiccup forced Toothless up into the air, then had him start to dive. As we fell, I noticed a certain blue Nadder getting caught in a storm of falling ice.

“Toothless!” The Night Fury fired at the green ice, thankfully saving anyone trapped. Having performed our rescue, Toothless continued to dive, blasting at large amount of cannons that shot out nets, which reduced our chances of getting caught.

We managed to pull up beside Astrid and Stormfly, and I was shocked to see Eret holding on for dear life in front of her. Hiccup was clearly taken aback for a moment, but shook it off and chose to greet him.

“Welcome aboard, Dragon Rider.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“Where have you two been?”

“Oh, you know, catching up with Mom,” Hiccup answered nonchalantly, as though it were no big deal. He then directed our gazes up to see Valka hovering on Cloudjumper, summoning the Bewilderbeast to come defend us.

“ _That’s_ your mother?” Astrid shouted.

“Well, now you know where I get my dramatic flair.”

“Indeed,” I laughed.

“Did you tell him?” Astrid pressed me.

“Yes, yes, relax. I told the whole family.”

“Told them what?” Eret asked above all the noise.

“That one’s carrying a child.” Astrid pointed to me.

“Really? Congratulations!” I had to admit, I was touched by Eret’s sincerity. Or maybe it was hormones, who really can say?

“Yeah, yeah, no time for this!”

With that, Hiccup slapped the front of his helmet down, as we rushed right back into the fray, this time in an attempt to find Drago. The Bewilderbeast started to destroy its icy home in order to get to Drago’s men, blasting out ice as soon as it saw them. Zipplebacks lit themselves aflame and tumbled into traps and cannons, taking them down.

“Come on, bud. Show them what you’ve got.” Toothless destroyed several traps before disappearing up into the air. Just as we got above the clouds, Hiccup turned back to look at me. “You guys okay?” I smiled.

“Never better.” Reassured, Hiccup dove down again, taking out the last couple of traps in our way. That at least dealt with those nuisances, decreasing the chances of any more dragons getting caught. “Okay, we should-”

The sea behind us began to bubble furiously, causing a large wave that took out several ships in its way. The waters tossed and turned violently as a large, black and grey dragon emerged from down below and bellowed loudly, demanding everyone knew of its presence. My eyes went wide as I looked down at it.

“Another one?”

“That is a class ten!” Fishlegs screamed in panic. “Class ten!”

It had no regard for anything, or anyone, as it stormed toward our Bewilderbeast in an attempt to defeat it. The two large dragons met, and began violently thrashing and slamming their horns together. At first, it was hard to tell who would be dominant, as they both seemed to be evenly matched. That was, until Drago’s Bewilderbeast slammed its head against ours, managing to get enough leverage to tip it over. It shoved out Bewilderbeast against the ice, and I watched in horror as it plunged its tusks into the white body.

“No!”

Basking in his triumph, the Bewilderbeast roared loudly, and all of a sudden, some of the dragons from our side flew to him.

Frantically, I looked around, wanting to put a stop to this before the death gold rose even more. My eyes searched the ground in a desperate attempt to find a man who could be Drago. I rested on a large, hulking man wrapped in dragon skin, a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Hiccup, that has to be Drago.” Nodding, Hiccup swooped down, and we landed with a thud.

“Stop!”


	12. Chapter 12

His eerie gaze rested on us as Hiccup fixed his leg and climbed off, before helping me down. I see a hand on the hilt of my sword, ready to defend Hiccup and Toothless if necessary. Hiccup threw off his helmet, and as soon as Drago got a look at us, he laughed.

“This… is the great Dragon Master? And his Berserker wife, was it?” he taunted. “The son of Stoick the Vast? The sister of Dagur the Deranged? What shame they must feel.”

“All of this loss, and for what?” I spat. “To become unstoppable? To rule the world?”

“Dragons, they-they are kind creatures that can bring people together.” He stuck his bull hook in the ground and menacingly chuckled.

“Or tear them apart” I gasped in horror as he brushed aside his cape and removed a prosthetic arm. “You see, I know what it is to live in fear, to see my village burned, my family taken.” The grip on my sword became firmer as he began to circle us. “But even as a boy, left with nothing, I vowed to rise above the fear of dragons, and liberate the people of this world.” He took back his bull hook and looked toward his Bewilderbeast in pride.”

“Then why a dragon army?”

“Well, you need dragons to conquer other dragons.” I was starting to figure him out.

“Or maybe you need dragons to conquer people… to control those who follow you… and to get rid of those who don’t.” Drago's smirk was full of malice.

“Clever girl.”

“The world wants peace, and we have the answer back on Berk. Just… let me show you…” Hiccup reached behind him to set a hand on Toothless, trying to calm his angry dragon.

“No! Let me… show you!”

He suddenly began to shout like he was insane, twirling his bull hook in the air to get the attention of the Bewilderbeast. Alarmed and confused, I pulled out my sword and held it in front of Hiccup and I, just in case this was a distraction. But sure enough, the large dragon abandoned its post and started to lumber toward us with ground-shaking footsteps.

“No dragon can resist the alpha’s command. So he who controls the alpha, controls them all.”

The Bewilderbeast focused its steely eyes on Toothless, and I'm a matter of seconds, he started to his and shake his head violently, attempting to resist.

“Toothless?” He started rubbing his head against the ground and squealing, almost as though he were in pain. “T-Toothless, you okay, bud? What’s going on?”

“Witness true strength. The strength of will over others.”

Toothless gave one last, half-hearted shake, then his eyes turned to slits and he straightened, no longer under our control.

“In the face of it, you are nothing.”

“Drago pointed his bull hook at Hiccup, and the Bewilderbeast growled lowly, uttering some sort of command. The Night Fury turned around and started to menacingly crawl toward Hiccup.

“Uh… What did he just tell you?”

My anger finally reached its boiling point, and I took a swing at Drago, trying to cut him in one, clean sweep. He must have anticipated the attack, however, because he moved out of the way and swung his bull hook down. I thought fast and grabbed my shield from behind my back, blocking his weapon and pushing back against his force, trying to get him out of the way. I managed to move him a couple of inches, before he swung his free arm out and knocked the shield from my hands. In the split second I stumbled, he swung the weapon forward, and I felt my cheek sting. But this wasn’t the time to wallow over injuries, so I thrust out my shield and managed to dent his arm when he was off-guard. I raised my sword up, and was about to strike him, when I heard a plasma blast strike something.

Quickly, I turned to see smoke settling, and lying there on her ground were Hiccup and Stoick.

“I think you have more important things to worry about than me, Mrs. Haddock.” I looked back at him with a fire in my eyes.

“At least I have people to worry about.”

As quickly as I could, I rushed to the terrifying scene, reaching the family just as Hiccup sat up. I expected Stoick to as well, but the chief didn’t move.

“No…” I helped Hiccup up, and the two of us raced over to where Stoick was lying, desperately pulling the chunks of ice off of him to get to his body- and more specifically, his chest.

As soon as he was free, Hiccup and Val flipped him over, and she

pressed her head against his chest. It was an agonizing few seconds, but when Val’s eyes closed and she let out a whine, the horrible truth was confirmed. Tears began to well in my eyes as I looked down at the body of Stoick.

“No.”

The Bewilderbeast roared into the air, summoning all of the dragons it had claimed, and releasing those it didn’t want. Toothless’ pupils dilated once again, and he seemed to realize just what he had done. With his head bowed down, he Night Fury approached Stoick’s body and nuzzled its hand, almost as though he believed that would bring him back to life. I pressed myself against Hiccup as he sobbed, trying to bite back my tears for his sake.

“No, get away from him!” Hiccup screamed, shoving Toothless away from us. “Go on! Get out of here! Get away!”

“It’s not his fault,” Valka murmured as Toothless scurried away with a hurt expression. “You know that.” Hiccup collapsed again, sobbing harder this time. Good dragons under the control of bad people do bad things.” Hiccup threw himself against me, each sob breaking my heart as I stroked his hair.

“Come on!” I didn’t have the heart to watch as Drago and his armada, and new army of dragons, left.

_Did we just lose…?_


	13. Chapter 13

I held onto Hiccup for as long as possible, trying my best to comfort him, despite my own saddens. Nighttime had fallen, and we had reached the final part of the ceremony to help Stoick pass on into Valhalla. His tears had dried, by this point, but he was like a rag-doll, slumped down and defeated. I brushed aside his hair and ran my hand down the side of his face, and as my hand touched against his cheek, he nuzzled into it with downcast eyes. As I moved it back down, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked back to see Gobber looking at me with forlorn eyes.

“Okay.” He walked away, and I took Hiccup’s other hand and squeezed them. “We have to go Hic.” Lazily, he nodded, and we made our way over to the others, each looking just as solemn.

“May the Valkyries welcome you and lead you through Odin’s great battlefield. May they sing your name with love and fury, so that we might hear it rise from the depths of Valhalla, and know that you’ve taken your rightful place at the table of kings.”

I was forced to let go of Hiccup’s hand as Gobber handed each of us our bows.

“For a great man has fallen.” He placed a hand on Hiccup’s shoulder. “A warrior. A chieftain.” The tears had returned. “A father. A future grandfather. A friend.”

With shaking hands, we reached down and dipped our pitch-soaked arrows into the fire. Hiccup was able to draw back his arm, and although I could see there was hesitance, he loosed the arrow and fired it at the boat. The flames began to lick at the wood, and I nodded at the others, signaling them to do the same. I felt pain in my chest as I watched a fire consume the boat, taking a great chief’s body with it.

Hiccup reached out for me and pulled me into his embrace, though I knew it was partially for his own comfort. His head leaned against mine as his chest heaved unevenly with sobs. Carefully, I ran my hand up and down his back.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” he whispered as he looked out at the boat. “I’m not the chief that you wanted me to be. And I’m not the peacekeeper I thought I was. I… don’t know…” He gave up on trying to say something, and as I felt tears starting to rise, I pulled Hiccup tighter against me.

“You came early into this world.” We both turned our head as Valka stepped up beside us, stroking some of her son’s hair. “You were such a wee thing. Oh, so frail, so fragile. I feared you wouldn’t make it. But your father… he never doubted. He always said you’d become the strongest of them all. And he was right. You have the heart of a chief, and the soul of a dragon. Only you can bring our worlds together. That… is who you are, son.”

Hiccup sighed and looked back out at the boat, taking a few steps closer to the edge of the land, the vacancy is his eyes slowly filling with a sort of determination.

“I, uh… I was so afraid of becoming my dad,” Hiccup admitted to me. “Mostly because I thought I never could. How-How do you become someone… that great, that… brave, that… selfless?” He paused for a moment to re-collect himself. “I guess you can only try.” He looked down at me, and as though he were afraid he were going to break me, he rested a gentle hand on my stomach. “Do you think they’ll be like me?” I knew he meant the ‘weak and frail’ part, but I chose not to focus on that.

“I hope so, whether they’re a boy or a girl.” I moved my hands to rest on the sides of his head. “Because being like you means that they’ll be merciful, and passionate… and they’ll know that life is precious, no matter who they are.” I could feel different tears biting at the back of my throat this time. “Being like you, Hiccup, means that the world is going to love them, and I would be so _incredibly_ proud of them.” There was something resembling a smile on his lips, then he lowered his eyebrows, and turned to face the others.

“A chief protects his own. We’re going back.”

“Uh, with what?” Tuffnut’s words were a reminder of our situation.

“He took all the dragons.”

“Not all of them.” It took me a second, but as soon as I caught the look in Hiccup’s eyes, I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh, no, no, no. This is such a bad idea.”

“We’re out of options, Reign.” I shook my head and sighed.

“This really is such a bad idea.”

“Come on, everyone.”

We followed Hiccup back into the hauntingly empty dragon haven, back through the familiar halls and rock formations until we were back in the large nest, now devoid of every type of dragon… except the babies.

“Everyone hop on.” We all looked at each other with suspicion, but we knew this was the only plan we had. I shook my head and climbed up onto one of the baby dragons, who started chattering and tossing. As soon as we were all on, the baby dragons suddenly took off, flapping and wildly flying down the icy corridors. Everyone started whooping and hollering- except for Gobber- and I even found myself smiling.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!”

“Fly straight!”

“I don’t want to die!”

“We can’t fly these things!”

“Yeah, no kidding!”

Astrid seemed to have a bit of control over her baby dragon as she pulled up beside Hiccup and I.

“But won’t that Bewilderbeast just take control of these guys, too?”

“They’re babies!” Hiccup chuckled. “They don’t listen to anyone!”

“Yeah, that’s a warning for the future!” I shot back.

“Oh, great,” he deadpanned. “At least they’ll be like their mother!”

“Hey!”

“This is-whoa!- very dangerous!” Gobber shouted as his dragon threw him against the ice. “Some might suggest this is poorly conceived.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I that I never listen.” I scoffed.

“‘Like their mother,’” I mocked, throwing his words back in his face. “Whoa!”

“So… what is your… plan?” Gobber’s words were chopped up by the chunks of ice we were flying aside.

“Get Toothless back, and kick Drago’s-”

“ _Baby ears!”_ I shouted, cutting Hiccup off.

“Sorry!”

“Heads up!” We all pulled around the side of the ice and re-congregated. “And that thing.” Gobber slammed into an ice bridge, but was thankfully able to shake it off as we made our way out of the icy caverns. As soon as it appeared we were in the clear, Hiccup got as close to me as his baby dragon would allow. “Are you okay?”

“Mm-hmm, we’re fine.” He smiled at me, and the other rushed past us.

“So… a baby? A kid?”

“I know. Scary right?”

“Scary, but… exciting.” I smiled as I looked at his eager eyes. “We’re finally… we’re gonna have a kid.” I laughed,

“Calm down, jumpy. We’ve still got, like, seven months to go until they’re actually here.” The smile remained on his face for a few more moments, before slowly fading.

“Wait… but where are they going to stay? And what about dragons? Should we have them meet Toothless immediately, or do we wait until they’re a little older? And now, I’m going to _have_ to be chief, but raising a kid is hard, and-”

“Hiccup!” He snapped out of it and looked at me. “We’ll cross those bridges when we get closer, okay?” He calmed down, thankfully. “I love you,” I laughed.

“I love you, too.”


	14. Chapter 14

We emerged from the cloud cover to see our home again. But the only part of it that reminded me of home was the general appearance. Climbing up onto the land, the large Bewilderbeast moaned and roared, summoning every one of the dragons from Berk to circle around it.

“No,” Hiccup muttered, looking at the full horror of the situations.

“He took all the dragons.”

“Distract the alpha,” Hiccup ordered everyone else. “Try to keep his focus off of Toothless.”

“Uh, how?”

“Have you forgotten who you’re riding with?” I rolled my eyes. Even though Eret was on our side now, his arrogance still got on my nerves. “There isn’t a dragon alive that I can’t wrangle! Aah!” His baby dragon took a sudden, sharp dive down. “Except for this one!”

“Amateur,” Snotlout mocked.

“Reign, stay close to me!” Hiccup cautioned as the Bewilderbeast bellowed.

The others peeled off to get closer to the Bewilderbeast, while Hiccup and I circled to try and find Toothless. The alpha roared at us, clearly trying to take control of our baby dragons, but they were too stubborn to listen. I searched through the horde of dragons, trying to spot the one Night Fury, but he didn’t seem to be among them.

“There he is!” I looked over to see Drago atop Toothless, his eyes turned to slits as he was forced to obey.

“Oh, no…”

“Come on, we have to get to the alpha and release his control on Toothless.” I nodded and steered my baby dragon just in front of the Bewilderbeast, ready to take it down if necessary, when some sort of white blur shot up in front of my face. I glanced at Hiccup in confusion, then looked forward again to see a sheep fly up.

“What the…?”

“Keep ‘em coming!” I looked down to see that the others were using the sheep launcher to distract the Bewilderbeast.

“Black Sheep, baby!” The Bewilderbeast roared as it found the source of its distraction, but suddenly became distracted again by the bellow of the horn we used to signal the last lap. Taking the chance, Snotlout launched the Black Sheep up, and it started to fall down the face of the Bewilderbeast. It stopped and stared as the sheep bounced off his horns. “Ten points!”

The horn blew again, but this time, the Bewilderbeast figured out what was going on, and lumbered over to shoot out a blast of ice.

“Hiccup, we have to end this.”

He and I steered our dragons up to hover before Drago. I felt all that anger rise back up again, but chose to fight it down and try our best to reason with him.

“You two certainly are hard to get rid of, I’ll say that,” Drago grunted.

“Toothless… Hey. It’s me, bud.” I watched as Hiccup got closer, preparing myself for Drago potentially taking the opportunity to wipe out another Haddock. “It’s me. It’s me. I’m right here, bud.” Toothless didn’t budge, and I could feel the tears in my eyes as things grew more bleak. “Come back to me.”

“He’s not yours anymore,” Drago chuckled. “He belongs to the alpha. But, please, O Great Dragon Master, try… to take him. He will not miss a second time.”

“You can do this,” I whispered, giving Hiccup a reassuring smile, “for Toothless.” He gazed at me for a few extra seconds, then turned back to bringing back his best friend.

“It wasn’t your fault, bud.” Carefully, Hiccup reached his hand out. “They… made you do it.” His slits started to flicker, opening a little bit. Toothless began to shake his head as he started to fight the control of the alpha. “You’d never hurt him. You’d never hurt me.”

Hiccup’s hand rested between Toothless’ nostrils, and the dragon’s pupils dilated once again. He looked up at Hiccup with those big, happy eyes, and cooed at his true rider. My heart melted as I let out a relieved exhale.

“How are you doing that?” I looked up at Drago and smirked.

“Please. You are my best friend.”

“You said it yourself. He’s the Great Dragon Master,” I taunted.

“My best friend…”

With a final, determined shake of his head, Toothless came back to us.

“Atttaboy! That’s it! I’m here!”

“Enough!” Drago struck Toothless once on the side of his face, and as his readied another blow, Toothless spun around and threw Drago off. He smiled at Hiccup and I for a moment, but without a rider, he couldn’t stay up, and he started to plummet.

“Hang on!”

Hiccup dove down and reached out for Toothless, plummeting closer and closer to the ground as he tried to save his dragon. Just before they hit spikes of wood down below, Hiccup mounted Toothless and pulled back on him, leveling him out before they shot back up to deal with Drago and his Bewilderbeast.

_They’ve got this…_

I steered my baby dragon close enough to land on the ground, jumping down as our friends swarmed around me.

“Reign!”

“Hey! Why didn’t you tell us you’re having a baby?” Snotlout demanded.

“Oh, gee, maybe I thought it’d be common courtesy to tell the baby’s father first,” I deadpanned, giving Snotlout a look.

“But Astrid knew!” he whined. My eyes flickered from Astrid, who shrugged, then back to Snotlout.

“Snotlout Jorgenson, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re… excited about this baby,” I teased.

“Pfft, no…” He looked away, clearly trying to seem tough. “Can it call me Uncle Snotlout?” I laughed and patted his shoulder.

“Yes, Snotlout.”

Hiccup and Toothless swooped over our heads, dashing straight for Drago and his alpha.

“Take him down, babe!”


	15. Chapter 15

I watched as Hiccup and Toothless soared just above the fire of the Bewilderbeast, spikes of ice barely missing them. They pulled up and did a loop above Drago, who didn’t notice that Hiccup had detached himself from his Night Fury until he sailed right past him. From his blade, Hiccup trailed Zippleback gas, then quickly lit it, causing an explosion that sent Drago crashing to the ground, his bull hook stuck right in front of him. Thinking quickly, I raced over and snatched the weapon from the ground, taking away part of his advantage.

I looked back up just as Hiccup started barreling toward the rock.

“Not again…” I muttered, shaking my head at him.

Thankfully, Toothless managed to catch him, and the two of them landed on the ground where I was standing above Drago. As soon as they landed, Hiccup pulled the blade from his side and ignited it, throwing it down to prevent him from grabbing the bull hook from me. Carefully, I backed up against Toothless to get the weapon away from Drago.

“Hold him there, you two.” Hiccup glared down at Drago defiantly. “It’s all over now.”

I watched in horror as Drago’s expression shifted from shock, to a smirk as though he had won.

“Or is it?”

I only had a second to spin around and look up at the looming Bewilderbeast, before Toothless curled up and growled, and I was thrown off of my feet, rolling underneath his wings to protect myself as it shot out ice. The cold overwhelmed me as I curled further into Toothless’ seething body, trying my best to keep myself from freezing to death while I tried to think of a way out of here. Hiccup’s voice from outside the ice was muffled, but I could still make out his words.

“Reign? Toothless? No, no!” I could hear him banging against it, but I was too shocked to say anything back. I couldn’t even stand, and slowly, it started to set in that we might be trapped in here.

Then, Toothless started to make a strange sound, almost like the one he did the first time Hiccup and I had seen him, and an unearthly, blue glow surrounded me. I closed my eyes as it bounced off the shining ice, and my hands flew to my ears as the ice around us exploded, sending a large cloud of dust throughout the area around us.

Carefully, I got to my feet, and looked back at Toothless. My eyes went wide as I looked at the fins on his back, now glowing a bright blue, along with the top of his head. The glowing, ferocious-looking Night Fury looked back at me with big eyes before roaring at the Bewilderbeast. I jumped slightly as Hiccup’s arms wrapped around me, but that smile came right back to me as I looked down at Toothless.

He suddenly jumped up from his spot and crouched on a spire of ice, roaring with an animalistic fury.

“He’s challenging the alpha!”

“To protect you…”

He fired at the Bewilderbeast with unrelenting Fury, simply jumping to a new point to continue shooting when the one he was currently on was destroyed. It was astounding, that instinct that had suddenly overtaken him to do something like this. As the Bewilderbeast’s power was lessened, the other dragons started to break free from the alpha’s control, coming back to our side of the fight.

Toothless shot back to the ground and roared again.

“No, no, no, no, no! No!” Drago shouted, realizing he was finally starting to lose the battle. He grabbed the bull hook I’d lost my grip on when I was trapped under the ice and used it to boost himself up onto the Bewilderbeast. “Fight back! Fight! Fight! What’s the matter with you?”

Hiccup and I launched ourselves up onto Toothless, who jumped up on the ice that directly faced Drago as he looked around in shock.

“Now do you get it?” Hiccup shouted. “This is what it is to earn a dragon’s loyalty.” Drago looked around at it all, unable to find words.

“Let this end now!”

“Never!” I groaned in frustration. He was defeated, nothing left but one dragon who no longer had an army, yet he wasn’t giving up. “Come on!”

Smoke spilled from the Bewilderbeast’s mouth as it readied another shot, but before it could fire at us, Toothless snarled back at the herd of dragons, and they all began to fire at the Bewilderbeast’s face. Hiccup and I looked up in amazement as Drago desperately tried to get the Bewilderbeast to fight back. It tried one last time to fire at us, but Toothless reeled back, before firing a large, threatening plasma blast. My eyes widened as one of the tusks from the large dragon broke in half and crashed to the ground.

Weakly, the large dragon bellowed and started to retreat backwards as Toothless furiously roared and thrashed.

“The alpha… protects them all.”

Drago’s Bewilderbeast dove back into the sea and swam away, finally retreating. Joy enveloped me, and I wrapped my arms tightly around Hiccup’s waist.

 _Now_ it was over.


	16. Chapter 16

We landed before the cheering people of Berk, watching with smiles as the dragons descended back to the ground, the wild dragons looking around at their new home. Cloudjumper was one of the last to land, and he loomed over Toothless before bowing down. That set off a chain reaction, and the rest did the same, chittering and cooing. Toothless looked around at all of them, before screeching.

“You never cease to amaze me, bud,” Hiccup marveled as he rested his forehead against Toothless’. “Thank you.” The moment was over, and Toothless starting licking Hiccup, covering him in his sticky saliva as everyone around them laughed. “Toothless, you know that doesn’t wash out.”

I shook my head and watched the pair with affection, until I felt something nudge my arm. I looked down to see a purple Thunderdrum gazing up at me with big eyes, and I smiled before crouching down and hugging her.

“Sorry I left you behind, girl,” I muttered as I rested my head against her back. “I just didn’t want something happening to you.”

With a final pat on Shriek’s head, I stood and made my way over to Hiccup, who looked at me with an affectionate smile. I drifted over behind him, placing my hands on the front of the Rumblehorn standing by us, his rider gone.

“That was some pretty fine dragon-wrangling back there.” I looked up to see Eret approaching the two of us. You two’d make good trappers.” Skullcrusher moved away from me and nudged Eret under his arm. “Whoa.” I smiled and leaned against Hiccup’s shoulder as Eret chuckled awkwardly, clearly not used to dragons being affectionate.

“You know… Skullcrusher is gonna need somebody to look after him now.”

“Me?” I nodded. “I’d be honored.”

“Oh, your father…” I removed myself from Hiccup as Valka came over, taking her sons hands with a wide smile on her face. “...he’d be every bit as proud as I am.”

“Thank you. I’m really glad you’re here, Mom.”

“And here I’ll stay.” Toothless came up to Val, and Hiccup turned back to me.

“See?” I smirked. “I told you it was in here.” I rested my hand against his chest for a second, then snuck it down and popped open the dorsal fin. His laughter was sarcastic as his rolled his eyes.

“You’re still doing that one. That’s hilarious.” Suddenly, he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close against him. “Come here, you.”

I was shocked for a moment as Hiccup pressed his lips against mine, but as soon as I was able to react, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, smiling into it.

He turned away as someone tapped him on the shoulder, and we looked down to see Gothi, gesturing to the ground. This was the moment, the one he’d been trying so hard to avoid. He looked back at me with scared eyes, and I urged him forward with a smile.

“You’re ready.”

With shaking hands, he stepped forward and crouched down, allowing her to draw the symbol on his forehead with ashes from a broken house. She extended her arms out, allowing Hiccup to stand as Gobber approached with a proud smile.

“The chief has come home!”

The crowd around us cheered and chanted, “long live the chief!” Dragons fired into the air, creating bright patterns in the sky. Hiccup reached out and pulled me back against him, moving my head to carefully rest against his chest.

“So… the alpha and the chiefs?” I smiled. “I could get used to that.” He smiled and caressed my cheek. “You ready for what comes next?”

“What _does_ come next?” I shrugged and kissed him again.

“Who knows?”

_This… is Berk. A bit trampled and busted and covered in ice, but it’s home. It’s our home._

I watched from the platform as some men and women carved a statue of Stoick into the mountainside, to honor a great chief. Some- including Hiccup- were repairing homes and buildings, while the others participated in another dragon race. Meanwhile, I just stood and watched everything happen, too far into my pregnancy to actually do anything that wouldn’t hurt me, or the baby.

_Those who attacked us were relentless and crazy. But those who stopped them? Oh… even more so!_

The dragon racers rushed by Hiccup, distracting him from his work and encouraging him to join. I shook my head and laughed as he dashed after them.

_We may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us. We are the voice of peace. And bit by bit, we will change this world._

Gobber launched the Black Sheep into the air, almost directly in Astrid’s path. It looked as though she’d be able to grab it and win, when Hiccup shot up from above her and snatched it.

_You see, we have something they don’t. Oh, sure, they have armies, and they have armadas, but we…_

Hiccup jumped off of Toothless’ back and dropped the Black Sheep in, before joining the others on the platform. As soon as he hopped down, he raced over to me and wrapped one arm around my waist, resting the other on my growing stomach.

_We have…_

“How are you two holding up?” I laughed and kissed his forehead.

“We’re absolutely wonderful.” Suddenly, I felt a flutter from my stomach, and Hiccup pulled away, looking at me in astonishment.

“Did they… Did they just kick?” I nodded and reached out to hug him again. “Oh, that’s amazing!”

Toothless nudged his way in between the two of us, and I laughed as he sniffed my stomach before demanding attention from the two of us.

_...our dragons!_


	17. Epilogue

I sighed and leaned back further into the chair as I set my book down, trying to concentrate on something else for now. I’d started having really minor contractions sometime this afternoon, but according to Val, they were nothing Hiccup and I had to worry about just yet. But, of course, Hiccup was being Hiccup, and he had been absolutely freaking out the entire day. And matters were made worse when he was called into a meeting, forcing him to leave me. Of course, I had Astrid and Eret, whom he had left me with, and his mother when I needed her, but I knew that wouldn’t quell him.

“Astrid, nothing’s working,” I groaned, staring up at the ceiling of the first floor. “I think they’re getting worse.”

She made her way in from the kitchen and looked down at me with sympathetic eyes.

“I wish I could do something. Do you need one of us to get Hiccup?” I shook my head.

“Hiccup is a walking panic attack at the moment. You go get him, he’s gonna think the baby’s coming now, so we wait until I’m almost in- ow!”

I bent over and gripped the side of the chair as a far more intense pain struck me. All I could do was take deep breaths and hope that it passed, but once it did, I myself started to panic. I got out of the seat as quickly and looked down, confirming what I’d been worried about.

“Okay, I lied. Let’s go.”

Without questioning it, Astrid took my hand and led me out of the house, instructing Eret to go and find Hiccup before we went in separate directions.

“We’ll get Valka, then go to Gothi’s. You’re gonna want all the support you can get.” I nodded and did my best to keep up, having to pause momentarily to allow a contraction to pass. But we reached Valka’s home, and opened the door with great force.

“Val!” I could hear her jump up, and she raced down the stairs, looking at the scene in her doorway as I leaned against Astrid. “We’ve gotta go.” She nodded and followed, helping me up the ladder to Gothi’s hut. She seemed to almost be expecting us, as things were pretty well set up for me to have a baby.

The three of them helped me lay down, and Gothi started to prepare other materials as Astrid crouched down beside me.

“You need anything?”

“For this to stop hurting!” She laughed, and I couldn’t blame her.

There was clattering up the ladder, and Hiccup quickly rounded the corner with Eret trailing him. He looked frantic and frazzled as he knelt down beside me and took my hand.

“Hi, hey, I’m so sorry I left you. I-I should have just… I mean-”

“Hiccup!” He stopped rambling and looked down at me. “Deep breaths, love. Deep breaths.”

“Sorry, sorry.” He finally composed himself, and was able to smile. “This is it.”

“Yeah, I know.” I looked over to Eret. “Go get the others, but don’t let them come in yet. There’s enough going on right now as it is.” He nodded and dashed off again as another wave of pain hit me, this one so intense I couldn’t speak.

“Hey, hey, I’ve got you.” I gripped his hand tightly and screamed as Gothi and Val came to check on me.

“Reign?” I looked up at Valka. “You’re ready.”

“That’s a matter of perspective. But I know what you’re saying.” I looked at Hiccup with a smile as Val ushered Astrid out with her. “It’s time.”

“You can do this. I believe in you, I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“And after this, we’ll finally get to hold that little baby, and take care of them, and love them.” I nodded and gripped his hand harder.

“Here we go.”


End file.
